Personal Brand

I have often been described as a lovable jerk, and really, I do not disagree. I have a tendency to find humor in stressful situations or to “razz” those that I am close too. This quality while entertaining to my friends, was actually quite helpful in my career as a chef. While working in a kitchen you are quite often swamped with responsibilities and stress, my light hearted yet critical attitude generally boosted morale and motivated those around me to work as hard as they could to impress me or prove me wrong.

I do not like to box myself in as just a cook/chef since I have many passions, but I also recognize that cooking is something I am quite skilled in, especially under pressure. Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines are my specialty and without bragging, I know that I can compete with some very talented Chefs in the areas of food quality and presentation.

I think my knowledge, sense of humor and critical thinking set me apart from others in this area. While I have many passions in life, I am quite alright with being known as a sarcastic, fun loving Chef and believe that I could transfer those qualities over to writing about not only my experiences in the culinary world, but also to analyzing and critiquing other restaurants/chefs in an informative yet humorous way.

Lovable Jerk Chef? Yeah that sounds like me.

B2C Case Study

In today’s business market having a strong social media presence can make or break a company. When you think of fast food you do not necessarily think of an entertaining twitter or Facebook (or whatever platform you prefer) page, but Wendy’s has certainly broken the mold with their twitter presence.

Rather than just promoting current deals or classic products and occasionally responding to customer feedback like a lot of fast food joints, Wendy’s actively interacts with customers, and most entertainingly, their detractors or as some would refer trolls.

Wendy’s has gone viral numerous times for their witty tweets in the face of criticism, while all the while still promoting their product.

While Twitter may be the most prevalent platform Wendy’s utilizes, they still use other platforms to interact with and promote themselves, most notably Facebook. However these other platforms are used for more traditional advertising.

Personally I am not a big fast food eater, the times I do are few and far between. That being said, because of their hilarious tweets they are one of the first businesses I think of when fast food is brought up now. Staying relevant today is important and difficult in a market that easily forgets or would prefer convenience over quality and I think Wendy’s has done a good job staying on peoples minds.

Head on over to http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-wendy-jokes/ to read some of the twitter posts that have people talking Wendy’s.

Which fast food restaurants do you prefer? Do you think having a funny social media presence in this day and age can help sell a product people have been used to for years now?

COM0014-Blog#2- Story Telling and Communication Styles

” The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever you’re trying to tell them. ” -Meg Rosoff 

      I have always enjoyed reading and writing, even when I allow myself to get distracted or make excuses not to, I still enjoy it. The key point I took away from from this weeks readings is to capture the readers attention as quickly as possible within the first paragraph, or you will likely lose them.

     I am guilty of clicking articles online that look interesting only to read the first three lines, skim through the rest of it quickly and deem it unworthy of my time. When it comes to novels, I have a rule of thumb, if I do not find it interesting within the first 50 pages, I am not going to read it. When someone is attempting to tell me a story, if they do not show enthusiasm or draw me in by some other means, I am likely to mentally check out until the tale is finished. This same rule can be applied to writing blogs or articles, just on a much smaller scale.  According to an article by Tony Haile on Time.com, the average person only spends about 15 seconds on a webpage. That is not a lot of time to draw your potential reader in, you have to be creative and well spoken in order to do so.

    What type of tactics do you use to capture a readers attention?

Cheers,

-Aaron Doy

Time article: http://time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong/

COM0014-Blog#1- My Last Vacation

My last vacation seems like a life time ago, unless you want to count bi-annual trips to Nova Scotia to visit family, which I do not, as they generally leave me wanting a vacation from my vacation!

It was September of 2015 when I finally accomplished the long time goal of crossing the Atlantic and visiting Europe, more specifically Barcelona, Spain. We arrived just in time for La Mercé, the yearly celebration of the end of summer. If you have never heard of it, it is a week long street festival covering much of the city, it includes many street food vendors, musical acts, fireworks and of course “Correfoc”, the fire run. Correfoc is quite the spectacle, with organizers dressing as devils and lighting fireworks off among the crowd, if you’re afraid of fire, watch from a distance!

The giant headed gentlemen above was one of the many supplying candy to onlookers during one of the firework shows. If you’re going to take candy from a stranger, make sure it is at night and from a man with a giant mask on.

 

We had every intention of making the beach our first destination after checking into our hotel room, but the jet lag had other plans and after a long nap the first night of our vacation was spent drinking Estrella (Barcelona’s local beer, which to this day I still purchase) in a park curiously watching people exercise. Apparently this is the norm in Barcelona, night time work outs at the park.

On day 2 we certainly did find ourselves at the beach, and a lovely beach it was. After apparently stealing beach chairs that were for rental purposes, not for unaware Canadian tourists to do what they want with, we were greeted by a man offering to sell us some adult beverages. After thinking to myself “I wish you could do this back home”, said beach bartender/waiter extraordinaire quickly hid between us so as not to get caught by beach staff while mixing our drinks, illegal or not, he made a hell of a drink!

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Barcelona was the food culture, I have worked as a Chef/Cook for a good decade of my life, and the food culture in Barcelona is highly regarded. After a few days of exploring the Gothic district and its many restaurants, I found myself addicted to Spanish Tortilla and tomato bread. Spanish Tortilla is an egg and potato pie/omelette hybrid that is mostly associated with breakfast, but is available almost everywhere all day.  This isn’t to take away from the amazing food all over the city, it is just a testament to how delicious the tortillas are.

Enjoying a delicious Spanish Tortilla and Tomato toast

After a few days of exploring the city and taking in touristy sights like La Sagrada Familia, we decided to leave the city for a few days and head up the Catalan coast to the Small town of Blanes, located at the beginning of La Costa Brava. Blanes was a major change from the hustle of city life. A very quiet town with lots of nice beaches and gardens, it was an excellent place to relax for a few days.

I could write for hours about the food, beaches, alleyway beers with locals and just general greatness of this city and its inhabitants, but I’ll spare you the long winded travel story and leave the rest up to your  imagination and possible wanderlust.

Have any of you been to Barcelona or the Mediterranean in general? I look forward to reading about your vacation adventures!

Cheers,

Aaron Doy