From Class Assignment to Campus Legacy // The Happiness Blueprint e012

Dylan, co-planner of We Mean Business Day at Salve Regina University, shares the roots of the conference, the challenges he helped overcome, and what advice he’d tell his past self.

0:00 Dylan from Salve Regina
0:15 Pioneering We Mean Business Day
2:18 The 14 People Who Built the Event
7:00 A Big First Step
9:27 Advice for Past Self
10:54 What Makes Dylan Happy?

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A special thank you to Vibe Arcs for sponsoring today's episode. To get started on tracking your personal, team or project happiness metrics, visit https://vibearcs.com/ 

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The Happiness Blueprint
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// The podcast where we uncover how people build happier lives.

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Think Like a Pilot
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Happiness Blueprint, the podcast where we uncover how people build happier lives.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome back to the Happiness Blueprint Podcast, friends. I'm here with Dylan. So Dylan, uh we're at Salvaregina. Uh help me understand. I know you helped build setup today. Help me understand kind of your role in making today happen.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yeah, so definitely. Last year was our inaugural event. Um this day is called We Me Business Day. It is a full-day industry-style conference for students in the business and economics department, but open to the entire university campus. Um, we started last year. I was on the sponsorship side. This year I took more of a leadership role in planning the entire day, every single detail, um, down to everything. Um, and and yeah, it's great to see it all to come come together, unfortunately. Faith, my um co-planner is out and about um leading the day.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

So it's someone's gotta steer the ship, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yeah, exactly. It's been very, very stressful, but seeing it all come together is just so rewarding. I didn't sleep at all last night. I bet. Um, but this is all worth it. And I feel like I slept 20 hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

That's incredible. Yes. Are you an alumna? Are you a student? Are you a faculty?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I am a graduating senior this spring.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Incredible. So this is a great legacy to leave behind. And to start this last year, uh, I think this one we talk about on the show a lot is like our goal often is to leave places better than we found them, right? Like definitely. The shows are making people happy, and that seems to be a great way to do it. Is if we can take every space we enter and leave it 1% better. Right. It seems like an incredible legacy that you're leaving behind here. Like, how does it feel to finally be here today? And I think probably when you wrapped up last year, there was some sense of like, can we do this again? Was this uh uh lucky day? Like, how does it feel to finally be here again?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I was even thinking about it last night. I was saying to myself, is this even feasible in the long run? And I was like, are we gonna show up tomorrow with 20 people in the keynote session and and we're gonna decide that we can't do it the next year? But the students are coming out and proving that this can happen again and again. And um, back to what you said about the the leaving a place better than you found it, I do have to give a shout out to Maya Parody, who really took the bull by the horns uh last spring. She was a senior and graduated. She's currently in Berlin for work, but we got her boss here. Um, and and I really have to give her a lot of credit because if it wasn't for her, I would not have gotten involved on that Cape Cod trip. She forced me to register for this class. She really not only left Salve a better place, she also left me a better place and our entire class that planned it last year. That's incredible. That's a uh high compliment. So she'd be very proud of that.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Uh, how did this idea first form? So, as you mentioned that last year was the first year, it sounded like this formed for a class was like a class project that grew far past the class project.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, so Maya in the fall of um last school year, she did a feasibility study to see if this is something that could happen at Salve. Um, our professor, Dr. Missy Vario, who was previously the chair and is now developing the hot developing the hospitality and tourism major. Um she had done something similar at a previous university, not to this capacity. But she um she took the bull by the horns again. I know I'm saying that again, but she really wanted Maya to do it. Maya did this big feasibility study, and then we decided to do a class on it. Um, and that class of 14 really took it and and made it what it is today.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

That's incredible. And you're finally here, finally getting to see people. Like it must be surreal to have all this hypothetical planning for the last year, year and a half, however long, I guess years since the last event here. Uh it must be crazy to see all this hypothetical planning become real, become tangible, and see people here and enjoying it in present. How has it made you feel to see everyone here soaking up all the hard work you put in, or you and your team have put in?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

You know, I'm not the biggest outgoing person, I'm not the biggest people person. Yeah. I but seeing everybody come together is really truly something special and and learn and be so engaged. I've never seen people my age be so engaged in something and so respectful. And I think even our external industry speakers have just said how how great Salve students are and and how much how great they're at communicating and emails and networking and all of that is really truly something special and it feels great.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Uh, how do you think they built that culture, which feels like a hard question here, but like why are the students here so great? What can we learn about uh what is a great population of students? How do we make other populations of students of people equally as awesome as the Salvae students have been?

SPEAKER_00 4:11

I think the first thing is Salvay is a very small, tight-knit community. Um, everybody kind of knows everybody. We're, you know, one degree of separation truly exists here. And I might not know everybody's name, but I know your face. And it's nice to see people coming together and and you know everyone. It just makes everyone feel really comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

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SPEAKER_00 6:17

I think first off, all of our sponsors, um I have to thank them because without this, this wouldn't be an event. And in Newport, we are so lucky to be um uh surrounded by such giving businesses who want to bring the community together. Um, so that's the first thing. Um, and then again, just the students coming together. It's really all about the students. They have brought it together. Um, I have learned so much throughout this process just by being so hands-on. Um, and it's nice to not have a hypothetical, finally. It's you know, normally you do like high school and college product projects, and they're they're all hypothetical events or whatever, but this is something truly special where it was managing a budget, putting together every single detail, communicating with people and networking.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Was this kind of your first like ex exploration into that? Or did you plan like a high school prom or graduation or homecoming or something? Were there other events you have planned in the past?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Really? Nothing even obviously nothing even close to this, but nothing even no, not really. Incredible.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Okay, that's a really brave first step. Was it nerve-wracking then to kind of dip your feet into this pool and try to like? I think there's always a balance here of like, I want to do this thing, but I don't feel like I belong in the space, or I don't feel like I'm qualified to do the thing. And it turns out that most of us aren't qualified for anything. You just have to show up and put on the smile and pretend that you're qualified to do it, and then you can fake it till you make it here. Um, but how is that process for you of kind of beginning this and taking that brave first step of like we have this idea in this class, there's the 14 of us here thinking about this. I want to do step one. I want to figure out what step one is to making this real. How is that process going from hypothetical to actualized?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I going back to Maya again, I I know I probably sound like I'm desperately in love with her, but she is really truly such an amazing person. And if it was not for her, I would not be the person I am today. I would not be as outgoing as I am. Um, and she really kicked me in the butt and made me realize that this is something that I want to do, and I'm gonna put my heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears. I slipped and fell yesterday while carrying these big letters behind the camera.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

They look great. They look great. They're heavily.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

I wish they were on camera, but um, and and if it wasn't for her, I don't think I've ever been this passionate about something in my life. And she created this, and then it was so great to have it come into my hands, mine and faith's hands, and and be able to continue it and hopefully make it better. And I hope everyone is enjoying it today.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah. What's the next step here? So you're hoping that after you graduate, you continue to have this as this passing on to the next generation of students. Are you hoping to expand this to a national conference? Like what does the next step here look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I think definitely keeping it at Salve. Um, maybe there's a possibility of expanding it for other majors, all inclusive, um, for the day. Um, obviously, I have faith, she's a junior, so she's gonna take the reins next year. We also have a great team of four other people, um, underclassmen, who will, I'm sure, be involved one way or another and be happy to take it on.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

It's incredible. Yeah, and it's incredible just to build a legacy. I think that's always the goal here is to build something that sustains you and outlives us. Uh, and of course, it will hopefully keep living next year, but to see the event grow, even if we're not on campus anymore. It's a beautiful thing to accomplish here. Um, cool. We like to wrap up uh with two last pieces here. Uh, one of them is advice you'd have for your past self. So as you're looking back at Planet's event as making today happen, or you're looking at yourself as a business major, as a student, as a human being, what's some advice you'd have for your past self that would have saved you some trouble in the past?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Oh, it's the most difficult thing to do, but stop being so insecure and thinking and worrying about what people think about you. It's so difficult to do that. Um, and and I've learned that throughout the process. I still struggle with it today. Yeah. Replying to emails, I look over it 20 times before I send it. I'm worried I'm gonna say something wrong. Um, you're not gonna make everyone happy. I guess that's my second piece of advice is you're not going to make everyone happy, and you will have to disappoint some people.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I think it's very tricky where it sounds like you are detail-oriented, which is the same thing that I am, where I read the email over 20 times. Or I think for me, a lot of my job is in video editing. So that detail right has been incredible because I do get to go through the edit a hundred times over. Most situations in life you don't get to go through a hundred times over. And I I too am haunted by those things where you walk away from the conversation and go, bully, I really wish I had said this thing or not said this thing, or whatever those little inaccuracies that we beat ourselves up for. So I think it's a very normal human thing, but also, yeah, a wise step to start to go, okay, that's not it, that's not serving me anymore. That's not benefiting me. It I'm sure it's helped in the process of building today. Yes. That detail orange that I'm sure was incredible, and I'm sure uh all the speakers appreciate the attention to detail. And that I think so often these emails are half baked and underwhelmed and not written with love, and it sounds like you did the opposite of that and did everything thoroughly. But certainly, yeah, we have to get to a point where we recognize what traits are serving us and when they are serving us, and when they're just noise in our brain, that's yeah, counterproductive ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Ultimately, cool. Um, my last question for you here is something that makes you happy. So obviously, today makes you happy. Don't give me the cop-out answer. Today makes you happy. Um, are you a skier? Do you like cooking? Is there a hobby you're into?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Is there a sport you're into? I do actually really love to cook. Okay, awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Is it like a favorite dish?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

What are you what really into Mary Meat Chicken recently? Mary Meat? Like, I'll make it once a week.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

What is Mary Meat Chicken?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Mary Meat Chicken, it's like a I'm gonna call it a glorified vodka sauce on chicken.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Um, but it's like got sun-dried tomatoes in it and a lot of red pepper, and it really, really flavorful and really, really good.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Awesome. Is that your dish currently? Is there uh are you mostly dinner food then it sounds like, or dinner and lunch?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, mainly dinner. I usually, it's not a good habit, but I tend to skip lunch um and sometimes breakfast too. So dinner is my meal. Dinner is the one. Yeah, well, I think it's not a basket.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Beautiful dil. Well thanks for taking the time to come chat with us. I appreciate you joining us here today. Um, awesome. We did it, friends, another episode of Happiness Blueprint. Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to the Happiness Blueprint, powered by GBM6.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

It's about making people happy.