Lunch With Alex #3 - Sam Seifollahi

Samyar Seifollahi is an MBA candidate at UCLA Anderson School of Management with experience in data-driven marketing, analytics, and strategic consulting. He has led marketing initiatives and built analytics tools to drive customer engagement, improve targeting, and support enterprise-level decision making. He has managed large-scale campaigns, supported business strategy through consulting engagements, and developed insights that increased deal conversions and measurable business outcomes. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So what why is sustainability important to you? Yeah. I think throughout my career and sort of lifestyle, uh, for something that I've learned for myself is that I want to make the world a better place and do it tangibly through things like riding a bicycle, creating infrastructure, uh, adding to community, and also just through my career. Um, I've been noticing like the companies that I want to work for, I want to make sure that I align with their ethics, their morals, uh, making sure their operations are sustainable. They actually help their community. Um, and those are lines that I've set for myself. I have boundaries, and I want to work for companies that do actually genuinely care about making the world a better place. So is is Anderson what you expected? I think I jumped into it with no expectations, uh, just so I can learn exactly like what my experience is like here. Uh, but it has been very enjoyable. It has been one of the best things I probably could have done with my life, and I I would not change it. Uh, I think it's been really eye-opening to have a great education, uh, world-class professors, and also just a community that really just cares about each other. Sam, thank you so much for uh joining me today on another episode of Lunch with Alex. Before we get started, I wanted to do something different. So I brought a basket uh full of food. So if you could go ahead and grab the basket, pick something you like, and then tell us why you chose that food. Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been very fun uh getting to know you before actually showing up to this, and it's an honor to be here. So thank you so much. Let's see what we got in here. I see a grape. Oh, some other interesting options. We've got an orange here as well. But uh, I think the thing that's popping out for me, seeing a banana. People who know me, they know my favorite color is yellow. I just really like bananas, and I'm trying to eat more plant-based. I think uh for sustainability reasons, for health reasons, it's a good place to go. And, you know, they also go really well in smoothies, so here we are. I'm gonna choose a banana. That is great. Yeah. No, I love I love that uh that color. I think it matches really well with the UCLA Anderson uh theme of blue and gold. And so thank you for sharing with us a little bit um about yourself and your and your food. So I guess the first thing, you know, I want to go over your name. So Samwar Sefalahi. Uh is there a story behind your name? Yeah, um my first and last name actually originate from Iran. My parents immigrated here uh back in the 80s. Uh my last name is actually Arabic. Very long story. I don't actually know the history of how the language is adapted over time, but uh my last name means like a divine sword uh in Arabic, and my first name uh sort of like a play on words with Iranian folklore, uh, which means like the helping hand of uh like a very famous hero in Persian folklore. So that's how I got started out. And uh here I am today, hopefully living up to the grand stories of Iranian folklore in this MBA program. That's awesome. That's awesome. Um, great. Okay. Well, let's uh kind of start from the beginning. Uh, where are you from? Where did you grow up? Yeah, um, I was actually born in Santa Monica, uh, but I ended up moving with my whole family to Orange County uh when I was three years old. So I've lived in like Pertola Hills, very close to Lake Forest and Irvine, and grew up there. Uh, did my undergraduate degree at USC, studying business administration. Uh, straight from there, uh went to work as a marketing manager uh for a large tech company called Esri. And from there I decided to take on the MBA and keep moving from there. Yeah. Awesome. Uh well, that is a very impressive background. Um, I'm curious, you know, what type of student were you in high school? In high school, it was very different. I was doing volleyball, I was hanging out with my friends doing film classes. Um, I wasn't really thinking about what am I gonna do in college, what am I gonna do for the rest of my life? I was more so just enjoying studying, uh, getting good grades, trying to be top of the class, uh, a little bit of competitiveness, trying to get great grades and doing volleyball as well. But um, at the time I was really enjoying film uh and going from there. And I ended up just pursuing that for a little bit, applying to film school, getting rejected, and then going to community college, applying to film school again, getting rejected, and then switching to business, which I've been enjoying now. But um, yeah, just in high school and college, I've just been very studious and trying to keep the grades up now and enjoy life. That's awesome. What got you interested in volleyball? Uh, I think it was because my brother ended up playing volleyball, and I always just joined on in on the activities that he was doing as well. Um, but volleyball itself is just a very fun, collaborative sport. Um, and I just really ended up enjoying it. There's a lot of like different technical rules, a lot of like uh stuff you can work on by yourself, and just a sport that like thrives on a lot of teamwork, but also thrives on people uh developing themselves athletically. Absolutely. Oh, that's great, that's super interesting. So I I understand that film and production is not uh new to you. So how did you get into that? Um Yeah, I had some really good influences in high school from uh the film teacher who has really shaped the way that I went throughout high school and uh helped me develop more of a character of myself and becoming more self-aware. Um, and from there I started just doing like drama classes, really enjoyed doing a little bit of theater acting, and from there I just started to stick with the program, uh, keep learning from this film teacher, and from there I actually just ended up doing a couple of short films, uh directing, um, you know, not too major of success, although I do technically have an IMDB page. Uh nothing critical or very successful, but it was a really good way to spend uh time as a teenager. When did you decide that you wanted to go to USC? Um Yeah. Uh when it was a great school, but not as good as you get UCLA. Uh I have a problem with that, but for the Anderson community, UCLA is better. Um uh out of community college when I was studying business and trying to find schools to go to, um, I just really wanted to stay in Southern California. I have a lot of family here, all of my friends are here, um, and I just think there's so much to explore in Los Angeles. So I ended up just applying to all the best business schools I could think of. Um, ended up just getting into USC, being really happy about it, uh getting waitlisted by UCLA, and then eventually getting in. But you know, I took that grudge to heart at first, but uh my heart is healed now. So uh ended up just choosing USC as one of the best business schools to go to, in terms of resources and exploring what business function I really wanted to get into. Uh, because at the time I was still just generally studying business, not really knowing like what I wanted to do in terms of uh function quite yet, um, but knowing I might be able to find it there. And with the breadth of experience, job opportunities in Los Angeles, it would be a great school to go to. How did you know you wanted to study business? How did you pick your major? What was your thought process, kind of figuring out your freshman and sophomore junior years? Yeah. Uh luckily I got to spend time in community college doing my business classes. So starting out um was pretty easy to like get into the classes, and I transferred into USC as a junior. Um, so choosing like what to specialize in at the time, um, it really just came to me as like, I like to use my practical skills, but I also like to be very social when it comes to business and not really like be stuck in a room by myself or not be able to think creatively. Uh, so I ended up choosing marketing uh sort of as a sort of uh building on those film skills and those interpersonal skills that you can get from um being a part of that industry, although very like disconnected from the professional world, but uh marketing just being a very good way to use those creative skills and practical skills to build a job function that's successful. Well, that's a great segue into what was your first job out of college, and I'm curious to know how did you land that job? Because jobs are hard to come by nowadays. They are hard to come by nowadays. Um, but yeah, as when I was finishing my studies at USC, uh, I started applying to a lot of internships. I wanted to just try something out and see what would be interesting to see whether I would like the job function or not. Uh I got an internship at Esri, the large business company or the large uh technology company my junior year. Um I ended up just applying to about 80 different places, just really jumping out there, seeing who would respond back. Um, they were one of the only companies to actually respond to the internship uh and accepting me. And unfortunately, it got delayed my junior year because of COVID. Um but they allowed me to do it the next year, and I ended up working with uh the team uh that I actually really enjoyed spending time with. I did the internship for about three months and they liked me so much they ended up keeping me on that I ended up working there for about four years. But I really just had a wide approach when it came to applying for those internships because I just wanted to explore to see what was out there, and I just enjoyed what I got picked at first. So yeah, absolutely. So so when you were when you made the decision to accept the internship, did you know that it would turn into a job offer? Or were you still kind of open-minded, or that was the the plan? I was hoping it would turn into a job offer. Um, because it was a large technology company. And after doing some research about what the company did, uh I felt really passionate about the types of impacts that would happen, uh, and then learning about uh what kind of team I would be working with, with and which ended up being a team working to get for-profit businesses to use the technology. I saw a lot of positives as I would go through that work and um see what kind of impacts I could make as an individual contributing to that team.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

That's awesome. Um, and where did you work after that? You said you were there for four years. Yes. I was working at Esri for about four years, and I have not been really working since. Uh I ended up leaving that job. It's a very long story uh and focusing on the MBA, but it's been really helpful to spend all the time at Anderson uh and continuing to explore what's out there. Um, although I did take some part-time contract work as a tutor, which is how I met Alex. Yes, which I'm sure we'll talk about for a little bit. Yes. Um, but yeah, I ended up looking for some positions and thought, hey, maybe I should use my business administration skills and help other students in the program uh really gain their footing, especially in the first quarter where it's very challenging to adapt to the MBA. Um, but I ended up enjoying that tutoring job. And since my contract has ended, I've been looking for other more full-time gigs, but might have something lined up. We'll see. Yeah, yeah, more to follow. So this is a good segue. So for everyone listening, uh Sam and I met the first week of my first quarter uh back in August, September, and it was on a Saturday, and I remember we were both at breakfast, and I don't know how this came up, but I was mentioning that I was gonna sign up for tutoring, or you said that you are a tutor, and I said I'm looking for a tutor, and then you ended up being my my tutor for for economics. So thank you for uh helping me study uh for the final and uh for the homework assignments, and it was it was extremely helpful. So I'm happy I could help. Um yeah, really kind of shows to your care character and the and the I think the Anderson culture of like shared success and paying it forward and and all that. So kind of let's get into Anderson a little bit. So how did you know that it was time to get your MBA? Yeah. Uh back when I was working at Esri, um I was approaching like three and a half years of working there. And the company itself is relatively flat in the sense that uh to move up and get more responsibilities, it was sort of difficult unless you move teams or someone moved on or moved companies. Um, and I just wanted to have that growth and learning as fast as possible because early in my career, I want to really learn as much as possible, possibly fail quickly if needed, and really get as much experience as I can so I can accelerate my career. Um and during that time I found, man, maybe I should just go get some continued education um and get an MBA because I want to get a leadership position or move up in my career and see if I can find any other specialties I want to do. Um, and at that time I just said, you know, let me just look into it, let me apply. I ended up applying as a round four applicant very late in the process. Um, and it ended up working out. I got accepted. I said, yeah, I'd love to be in Los Angeles and come to UCLA and see what it's like to be here. That's great. Uh that's really cool. So now that you're here, you're a second year, going into your third year. So, how has your experience been? Which clubs have you been involved in? How did you make those decisions? Yeah, it's been really fun throughout the first year. Um, most of the time being in this uh fully employed MBA program and meeting other Fembas, uh, you get a lot of experience just learning your peers, learning their experiences. And my favorite thing to always tell people, and what I really believe, is that I haven't found anyone in the program I don't enjoy talking to. Everyone has something interesting to say. Everything that people talk about, there's something to learn from it. And that's really the beauty of our community is that everyone's open, everyone's sharing, and it there's no barriers. Everyone wants to get along with each other, everyone wants to build that community, and it's a beautiful thing to have. Uh, and I think that's what makes Anderson so special is that everyone really does care about each other. And it's been really fun just getting that experience. And moving towards my second year, I've been really enjoying learning from the full timers as well. Uh, the full-time MBA program has a lot of like clubs and interactions, and currently I'm actually the director of cycling for the outdoor adventure club. Cool. So I've been enjoying that position, learning a lot from the full timers about their experiences of the program, learning from them as well, um, and also just providing fun recreational activities that doesn't require us to be in suits to have fun and still share our business stories and learn from each other that way. Absolutely. And speaking of cycling, you went cycling this morning. Is that right? So, where did you go? I've been enjoying the LA River Path. I actually invited a classmate of mine in our Saturday section, uh Amon, and we just went for a leisurely bike ride uh just through the LA River Path in one of my favorite cafes called Spoke. Um, they're a bike shop and cafe combo that's literally right off the LA River Path. So if you're biking there and you like bikes and you like food, it's the perfect place to stop. Yeah, no, that that's awesome. Since we're talking about bikes, I know you brought this uh this mini bicycle. So is there a story behind that? Yeah. Um ever since I had been getting interested in bicycles, even before I started commuting, uh, I started learning about sustainability and how to make cities a better place to live. Uh growing up in Orange County, it's very suburban, very disconnected. And it's the story for a lot of Southern California. Uh, learning how to make cities more walkable and more dense. Um, I've been learning a lot about the benefits of that. And bicycling just goes hand in hand. Uh, ended up visiting Amsterdam uh a couple of times, ended up picking up this little trinket, which has been pretty close to me, uh, just as a symbol of life being simple and enjoyable, just being on a bicycle. We don't always have to drive our cars everywhere, spend a lot of money maintaining these cars. And there are lifestyles that we can take on that are happy, sustainable, uh healthy, and we can get the benefits just from riding bicycles. So, a lot of uh the reason why I like to hold on to this thing. I love that. So, what why is sustainability important to you? Yeah, I think throughout my career and sort of lifestyle, uh, for something that I've learned for myself is that I want to make the world a better place and do it tangibly through things like riding a bicycle, creating infrastructure, uh, adding to community, and also just through my career. Um, I've been noticing like the companies that I want to work for, I want to make sure that I align with their ethics, their morals, uh, making sure their operations are sustainable. They actually help their community. Um, and those are lines that I set for myself. I have boundaries, and I want to work for companies that do actually genuinely care about making the world a better place. Um, so that's been a big reason why I have set sustainability as a large part of my life, uh, and even through my career, is that I'm gonna be very picky about the companies that I work for and the roles that I take on because I want to do good for the world. I I love that. Uh you mentioned one of your interests is public infrastructure. So would you elaborate a little bit more on which public infrastructure? Yeah. Um, I mean, a story from coming from Amsterdam, just seeing the level of public transit that they have, the bicycle infrastructure that they set up, and how accessible it is to the people that live there. I've seen people using mobility devices just to get around town. And it's really nice to see that everyone has access to streets. Um, when it comes to bicycle infrastructure being accessible, um it's really just open to everybody. You have a lot more equity in the communities that are built around it. Um, and on top of that, public transit systems being great, we have less reliance on cars and therefore less reliance on you know very expensive vehicles. Uh unfortunately in the US, we we have to do this sometimes in the areas that we live in. But um, there's just a lot of social benefits that come from having public transit, bicycle infrastructure, and a less uh dependence on cars. I love that. It's it's not about me, me, me, it's about we and how can you know we make the world a better place.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

I love that so much. Uh another thing that I found very interesting is skiing. So could you Yeah, I mean this one's just been a longstanding interest of mine. But I grew up skiing with my parents, with my brother. Um, it's just been something that grounds me every year. I love just being in the mountain, having the serene, snow-covered trees around me. And it's also just a fun little challenge of flying down the mountain, hitting top speeds. Um, and also just the way you constructure vacations in the winter. It's always nice to have these little mini vacations of how can I go exercise, how can I enjoy the elevation, see new places. Um, although it is a very expensive hobby and sport to be interested in, um, it's been really fun and something that I try to get everybody to do if they're comfortable with the the speed and the sliding around on the snow, but it's just one of my favorite things I've been doing. I love that. So, what are your favorite mountains, ski resorts? Have you been to Mammoth? Yes. Uh, I actually grew up doing uh a lot of skiing on Mountain High, which is one of the closest resorts to Los Angeles. They do make a lot of their snow, so it's not uh the most natural place, it's not the best place to get your snow. Uh, but Mammoth Mountain has been wonderful uh recently. We all visited. Um for Mamderson, quick plug to Student Council and Yes. Thank you, Student Council. Thank you, everyone who plans these on the back end. It's always super fun. Yeah. Um but yeah, I just love being out in the mountains. I also frequently visit uh Salt Lake City in Utah. Uh my brother lives out there, so just another excuse to go have fun and reconnect with my family when I can. I love that. So what what's your level? Are you like uh uh I want to say like they give you the three tiers of beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I'm somewhere in between intermediate and advanced. Sure. Uh but my gear says otherwise, but we still shred. Uh yeah, no, absolutely. Um my dad is a ski patroller in Pennsylvania. Yeah, so he, you know, uh does that in Pennsylvania. And I grew up skiing too. So I definitely share that. I learned about it. Yeah, yeah. Uh okay, great. Uh what is Net Impact? You mentioned that as one of your affiliations at Anderson. Yeah. Net Impact is a great club at Anderson. Um, it really focuses on like um public opportunities, community opportunities, and also business opportunities to um create impacts for communities across the Los Angeles area and even for the US. Um they're focusing on opportunities around sustainability um and how to create more business practices around just caring about your community um and also just making the world a better place. Uh, and I thought it was a really great fit for me. I want to get even more involved with them. I unfortunately haven't been able to take as many club events and activities with them as I'd want to, but uh previously I have through the Outdoor Adventure Club, we um all attended what's called the Ciclovia. Uh it's an event across Los Angeles where they turn public spaces into Parks. They shut down streets from cars and everyone can run around. There's a lot of sponsorships and local partnerships with nonprofits and organizations to just allow people to enjoy the streets and understand wow, we can have streets be a really fun place, uh, provide resources and get people to reconnect with Los Angeles. So now going back to Anderson and the academics, let's talk about academics a little bit. You know, what was your first impression of your first quarter? Because I know you're ahead of me. Was it what you were expecting? It was definitely challenging. I think doing data and decisions was one of those courses where it varies a lot from class to class. But in my experience from doing that class, it was interesting using AI a lot more. And AI is like a very touchy subject, uh especially from a sustainability perspective. But the ability to do a lot of uh computing in a very short amount of time, uh, and my unique opportunity in that class to do coding through AI was very helpful in the sense that I don't have any coding background, I don't have any technical background, but seeing the ability to create stuff a lot quicker than usual and not having to rely on a lot of other people is something that's been really helpful in learning because uh as I progress through my marketing journey, I've noticed a lot of the activities that I can do are very solo based. A lot of the times I have to work with the resources that I have. And knowing that I can use a lot of these tools to help accelerate my productivity and also create proofs of concepts are very, very helpful to me. It's also been really interesting working with a team that you get preset with for the first time. Yeah. Um, I think there's a lot of work that's done on the back end in Anderson to really promote diversity within our teams. And that was a very good experience. Seeing how people work inside of their teams with their different backgrounds was actually really helpful. Um, although I did switch sections and have my teams moved around a lot, um, and every team I've just noticed it's really fun to get different structures um and just seeing how people work differently is just very helpful as a professional and learning the best ways to communicate with the people you work with. Yeah, okay. So learning groups. Um is there anyone you want to give a shout out to? You know, as far who was in your learning group. Yeah, I'm gonna give a shout-out to Charlotte Gordon, social chair uh for section four, I think. Um awesome person, really just helped keep everyone together um while we were running through these first couple of quarters. Um and yeah, also just for being social chair, helping influence all of our events that keep us getting closer together. Um, and everyone else in my learning groups too. I I can't shout everyone out, but I I've appreciated everyone that I worked with and their contribute contributions as well. That's awesome. Uh what did you think of the team building during full week? I thought it was interesting. Um do you mean like more of the the ropes course or like just like that too? I mean, there was a lot. I mean, there was that whole week was just a shock to the system. Yeah, I mean, it pushes us to the limits of like giving us assignments that only have a very strict deadline. I feel like I'm in like a venture capital room and I'm like, oh man, we have an hour to do this before like the money comes in or we have to make a decision. Um it's been interesting. I know some companies they actually do work that way. Um, I've been lucky enough to be working in very relaxed settings, so it was jarring to me. Um, but it's a great way to learn like how to work with people. And uh when you get put in very stressful situations, like how people react and learning that I think is a great way for team building itself. Um knowing how people react under high stress. And yeah, I can see how that would be important. Um, any electives that you are glad you took? Any electives that you're interested in taking? Yeah, I'm actually really interested uh looking forward for global marketing management. Um as a subway or not a subway, a segue uh for hopefully a job opportunity that I'm looking forward to. Um I've been looking into opportunities for managing marketing outside of the US and global marketing management, um, a class specifically focused on marketing uh in multiple countries. I think it's going to be a great opportunity to learn how to become more of an international business person, uh, which is something I've been thinking about, especially going through the program and thinking more internationally, uh, where can I work outside of the US? Um, and how can I transfer my skills? Thinking about that class of, you know, how can I be optimizing marketing campaigns with, you know, translations and also um looking at the characteristics of new markets are also just a great way of analyzing your current market, making sure that there aren't like translation issues even within country bounds, I think would be interesting. Um, but I'm always just interested in optimizing marketing efforts and learning more about people and how they choose the products that they choose and how they make their decisions is something I'm always interested in. Absolutely. I'm taking uh a marketing class with uh Professor Robert Zeithammer um uh right now. And we were going over the four Ps and the three Cs and segmentation, targeting and positioning. Yes. Um as a as a marketer in the industry, is that stuff that you use or is it something else? So funny enough, uh as an Anderson student, marketing was the worst grade I have had so far. Um it's surprising, but uh as a marketer, usually we don't have as rigid of a framework. Uh the company that I was working at doing B2B software marketing, it's very different in the sense that um as much as I'd love to use the standard frameworks for finding different marketing segments and what works for them, um B2B software sales are so different in the sense that you always have existing customers and non-existing customers. And we tend to work with the existing customers a lot more. So I'm sure these frameworks work amazing for B2C models and other ways of attracting large markets. Um, but I've learned a lot from that class. And the grade not necessarily reflecting my enjoyment of the class, I did have an amazing time uh learning the frameworks and really just resetting as a marketer of what should I be doing. Um, I think it's been really helpful uh to take that course and also to just understand why we use those frameworks. If you had to pick one club, event, or social activity that truly defines the Anderson community spirit for you, what would that be and why? Well, I might be a little biased because I am a director for this club, but I think Outdoor Adventure Club is one of the best ways to get involved with meeting more people in Anderson and seeing that spirit of community. I think when you have so many different opportunities when it comes to activities like, you know, cycling, climbing, hiking, running, everything in between, um, you really just get to learn from other people and like seeing what they get to choose as activities, seeing why they like to do what they do has been really helpful as community. Um, and also just using those opportunities as excuses to just hang out with people. And as business students, I think we want to leverage that time as much as possible, especially when we're creating our community and networks. It's been really fun just getting extra time to hang out with people, playing beach volleyball, and then you know, turning around saying, Well, how's your job? How's life? Why are you choosing your career path? And you know, what classes are you taking to help accelerate where you want to be? And I think it's really formative in that journey to take clubs and you know the recreation time to really help us form outside of the classroom.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

So the quality of people really make the experience.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah. Um very memorable. Thank you for that. Next question. Um, what is the most valuable non-academic lesson that you've learned about yourself or about leadership since starting your MBA? Yeah. I we did have a really good guest speaker come in for Net Impact. Um I believe their name was Joshua, but I can't fully remember. But they came in representing um an organization that they've been working with, which is centered around like nonprofit work and making impact. Um, and their story really inspired how I want to take my career. Of they started out having a very long bout of unemployment because they also have an impact-minded career uh where they want to continue to make impact in the world, do great things, but sometimes corporate opportunities don't allow us to do that. Um, and they were limiting themselves. But throughout that journey, when I was hearing their story, it's really great to know that sometimes we can do activities and still be productive in making sure we hit our long-term goals, even if we can't hit our short-term goals. And just having the long goals of what do I want to do in my career? What do I want to achieve and why am I doing them? I think have been really formative for like how I've been learning. And even though it wasn't a strictly academic session, uh, more so just a career talk, it's been really inspiring me to think about what kind of courses am I taking and why am I choosing my electives to get to the goals where I am. Even for Capstone, um, it's been really interesting just hearing those talks and seeing other people's projects to see, you know, where should I be going and why do I want to choose an option over another. That's coming up for you in the fall. Yes. We are currently in group formation, so we're figuring out, you know, which one we want to do, whether it's GAAP, BCC, ETA. Um, I'm leaning towards BCC right now, looking uh for a group that actually uh has a patented technology from a UCLA professor. Uh really interesting tech just around the sustainability world, but you know, results uh yet to come. We'll see with the whole BCC project. Yes. So I know that some people here listening, they might not be Anderson students, or they might be like me in their first year and still don't know what that means. So could you explain a little bit about the different types of capstones and maybe some pros and cons if if there are any? Yeah, the BCC is called the business creation capstone, uh, where students can come bring their ideas to start a business. Uh, they form a team that will help them make this business happen. Um, their most popular option for the Anderson program is called GAP. I believe it's called the Global Access Program. Uh, it allows companies who are coming in internationally and want to enter the US market to get a team of Anderson students who are basically consultants uh taking on different roles to figure out how they should be structuring their strategy while they enter the US market. Um, ETA, I believe, is entrepreneurship through acquisition. Um, I don't know a lot about that one, but I believe it's more centered around like venture capital, uh, doing a lot more like financial investments. Um there is still a lot of interest in the program for doing that. Um I am not the most financially focused uh business professional, so I can somewhat speak that language, but um yeah, there's a lot of great options for whichever capstone people want to choose. And how do the groups work? Do you pick them yourself? They're self-forming. Uh, there's a lot of facilitation that ends up happening, um, a lot of events that go on where people can mingle and figure out who they want to work with. And throughout the first year as well, there's a lot of uh thinking from people who want to create those groups, uh, especially for things like BCC, figuring out who you want to help you on your business creation journey, and gap also just being an opportunity to say, who do I want to work with and who do I want to continue growing alongside? Um, I know a lot of people who have been choosing gap groups, uh, find people that they really enjoy working with and also uh people they want to learn from. Um, it's a lot of very experienced people in the program who have really awesome jobs um and a lot of skills that we want to take away and maybe learn for ourselves. Absolutely. That's great. Thank you for educating me and the listener on uh what's what's ahead. This question is about work-life balance. Um so you know, with everything that you have going on, the clubs, the school, the studying, um how did you balance um your your life with living in Los Angeles? Yeah, I actually struggled with that when uh I first started the program. Uh my last job was in the Inland Empire. Uh, there's a lot of commuting to happen for me to be at UCLA and the Inland Empire and somewhere in between to live. Um so starting out, I think it was a little more difficult, but because of a lot of the options that we have at Anderson and flexibility inside the program, I first started out doing Tuesday, Thursday night classes, but I recently moved to the Saturday section, and it has helped a lot. Just being able to focus on work during the week, living life there, and then doing classes on the weekends has been a great help for me. Um, and even on top of that, it's managing that time, trying to figure out like when can I study, when can I meet with my group. Uh, being as organized as possible has been really helpful. On top of that, um I have luckily had the luxury of leaving my job. Uh, so managing the program has been a lot easier for me, having my weekdays fully open. But on top of that, a lot of people end up keeping their jobs and coordinating with them, being respectful of their time, uh, and making sure you're being intentional with every time that you meet with somebody has been really helpful as well, with making sure that everyone's happy at the end of the day. Um, and on yeah, just meeting with people uh during like agreed times, making sure we're all uh bringing everything we can to the table has been very helpful as well. Zeroing in on um the academics a little bit again. So uh since again, as my tutor, right, you obviously do learning well, you do studying well. Uh so do you have any study tips for anybody listening that might be struggling in their core classes or maybe they're afraid and intimidated by any upcoming classes? Uh, what has worked for you? What have you seen work for others? Yeah, I mean, starting early is probably the best way to get on top of your studies, reading the syllabus ahead of time. And I don't mean that like, oh man, you need to study the syllabus. It's more so like if you can and if you're organized, put your assignments on your calendar as early as possible. Know when you have things due, work on them ahead of time, and try to finish things as fast as you can uh before the due date. So if you do end up making a mistake or if you talk to your like classmates and have something uh different, you can always talk it out. Um, but being prepared before you show up to like a group meeting and making sure you do your assignments uh before you end up meeting with like a TA is really helpful. Um on top of that, just in general, for hopefully being a good student, just don't wait till the last minute. That's when stress happens, that's when you don't learn as much. And being as relaxed as possible while you learn is usually the best way that I've seen in my own academic career of absorbing the most amount of information and being able to relay it well. And then outside of maybe studying any other success strategies for you know being a good MBA student, yeah. I think what's been the most helpful in Anderson uh for me so far is just meeting as many people as possible, seeing a lot of different perspectives, learning about people's backgrounds, job functions, and their strategies, I think is the best way to help ensure a success for yourself. Uh learning from others is really the best way we can be successful as humans. And I I don't think it's any different in business school. I think keeping community, uh having an open mindset of being able to help each other is the best way we can all become successful together. And when one person succeeds and shares it with others, it's exponential. So yeah, definitely meeting people. Um so that brings me to my next question, which is you know, in your opinion, uh Sam, what is the value of getting an MBA and where does that value come from? Yeah, for me, a lot of it has been so far in the network. Obviously, I haven't seen the results after finishing the MBA because we're still in the middle. Um, but I I don't mean to say the network as in like a default answer for an MBA, but it truly is about community and meeting new people. I think I spent a lot of time in my undergraduate experience being almost too studious to the point where I should have probably made more friends and made more connections that would have allowed me to continue to grow in my career while I was at my last company. But um, moving forward with the MBA and being able to connect with people, create a community across Los Angeles, and genuinely just creating friends uh has been one of the best aspects of the MBA, where now I've got the experience, I've got the education, and I'd now I can call upon other people to say, how is your experience at that company? And are there opportunities that can help us both grow? Or do our skills align? Uh, and also just being able to like know how we all work together is one of the best ways to really think about how we can grow together as a community, how can we find opportunities that are best for each other? Um, and it's been really reassuring that a lot of my classmates, even when I ended up leaving my last job, were offering hey, like we want you to be a part of our community. Look at our job board. Let me know if you want to work at our company because like we we can enjoy our each other's presence and know that we take care take care of our work. Um, so I think just doing the MBA process and all educating ourselves and learning about each other, um, we all just become stronger, like business professionals, stronger people, and hopefully happier people at the end of the day. Absolutely. So is is Anderson what you expected? Um I think I jumped into it. But did you have a different picture in mind? I think I jumped into it with no expectations, uh, just so I can learn exactly like what my experience is like here. Uh, but it has been very enjoyable. It has been one of the best things I probably could have done with my life, and I I would not change it. Uh, I think it's been really eye-opening to have a great education, uh, world-class professors, and also just a community that really just cares about each other. Everyone shows up intentional, everyone shows up with something to bring to the table. And, you know, the community feasts that way. Everyone brings something, everyone gets something. In an MBA program, the learning environment is different than in an undergrad. So could you compare and contrast your experience? A lot of my undergraduate experience at USC was very focused on individual work. Uh, there were some group assignments here and there, but uh comparatively, the graduate experience at Anderson and at UCLA, uh, it's really focused on collaboration, where a lot of the assignments, a lot of the uh aspects are really just about our group work and making sure we all collaborate together to find the right outcomes. Um, because that's how it is in the real business world. No one in their job function is the only person making a decision on something or has the only source of information. We all bring something to the table, we all do our research on the back end before we come together. So the academic experience at Anderson is really just focused around how can everyone work together? How can we all elevate our intelligence, our skills, um, and then bring that to the courses as well, which has been really helpful in my opening.

unknown 42:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

That's awesome. Um, so now we're kind of getting towards the end of our our time together. And I just have a couple more questions for you, Sam. Um so when future Anderson students look back, what's one thing that you hope you will have contributed or left behind for the Anderson community? Yeah, I mean, I want to say inclusivity. I think just having that aspect of making sure everyone's invited, everyone has a chance to say something and bring what they believe to the table really just makes us better people at the end of the day and keeps our eyes open to other perspectives. Um, I've learned a lot throughout the program just listening to other people and learning from what they have to say. I think making sure that everyone continues that level of community and continues that level of inclusivity keeps Anderson a great place. And hopefully I can leave that mark by the time I'm not in the program. Yes, the plan is for all of us to graduate. Yes. All right. Um, how about mentors? Have you uh uh is there anyone you would like to honor or thank that maybe helped you along your journey? Yeah, uh a couple of people, uh some graduated, some not, but uh Kat Loy, um, who's helped just sort of talk through the experience of the MBA. Uh she graduated not too long ago. Uh also John Mouth, who I believe uh started his own coffee company, still finishing the program, I believe, uh, but probably graduating uh the next quarter. Uh but both of them have been very helpful to talk about, you know, what's upcoming, what have they done in their capstones, um, and also just being like good friends. So if you could describe your UCLA Anderson experience in just three words, uh, what would it be? Oh, at first challenging. At second, I want to say fun. And so far in the third, I want to say exploratory. Challenging, fun, exploratory. I like that. Very concise. And so now kind of turning it uh the mic over to you. So is there anything you'd like to share with the audience? Any final thoughts in this space? Um I mean, if you're in Anderson, welcome to Anderson. If you're thinking about uh getting an MBA or coming to Anderson, it's a great place to be. Um outside of that, if you've never thought about riding a bike, I would encourage you to ride a bicycle regardless of where you are and see the benefits that come from the childlike joy of being on two wheels. Um outside of that, thank you for having me, Alex. It's been wonderful to talk and chat about our experiences. So thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. Uh well, right back at you, Sam. You know, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story and your perspective uh with uh our audience today. What stands out to me most in our conversation is how your um analytical mind and the one that helped me navigate the complexities of economics uh is the same mind in helping global organizations understand the world through uh data and through sustainability. Um whether you're leading a uh cycling pack or leading a marketing strategy, um, you've shown that leadership isn't just about the data you have, it's about how you use the clarity to serve others to build a more sustainable future. Uh so for those of you listening uh who are navigating your own uh rivalry transitions or perhaps just trying to balance a full-time career with the rigors of an MBA program, I hope Sam's journey uh reminds you that growth is most meaningful when shared with the community around you and surrounding yourself with um high-quality people. Sam, thank you for being a part of the Lunch with Alex community and for everything that you do for our MBA class. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this conversation with Sam, please be sure to subscribe, share it with a friend, and join us next time on Lunch with Alex. Thank you.