Every day I wake up to a warm embrace and a wet nose from my youngest pup Jaz. She sits quietly next to my side of the bed first to see if I’ll wake up and when I don’t she jumps up to say good morning. This happens at four am every day.

This has been going on for at least a year now and I’ve grown used to it. Sometimes I even wake up moments before she does and I’ll grab and hug her when she says hello. It has shifted my night time routine to going to bed earlier than I ever use to so that I still get roughly seven hours of sleep every night.

Rising, I feed the animals, pour my first cup of coffee and sit down in the silence of my living room to do my morning surf. While I know plenty of productivity experts would hate this, for me it works. I quickly know if anything pressing arose overnight and I catch up on what my friends are doing around the globe. Then I read through the New York Times and Apple News to be sure I’m updated on the day’s headlines.

Lately, I’ve been thinking I should use the quiet time that follows more productively though. Perhaps I should go downstairs and throw a sandbag around or ruck a few miles on the treadmill. Maybe I should break out the laptop and work on my next book that has been boiling up to the surface over the last couple of weeks. The usual is to watch a documentary or whatever series I’m currently binging. (Loved the new Jack Ryan show by the way.)

The more I thought about it this morning, the more I realized that I needed the quiet morning hours of nothing in my recent past to balance out everything else that was going on in my life.

Today, things are more stable, prepared and organized. The chaos of last semester with new classes, lectures and day-to-day figuring things out at a new school have settled down into a new semester that has a solid foundation and I can build on top of rather than trying to clear the land and build at the same time. It feels good. It feels inspiring.

Mentally, I feel comfortable spending time and brain cycles on my art. Those things that give me deep seeded satisfaction, but might not give my family immediate support. Writing, photography and other creative outlets have long since been put on a shelf and only allowed out to play from time to time. Now, I want to take them down, dust them off and let my imagination run wild.

Stability is a new thing in my world and while we never know how long we’ll have it for it is simply refreshing to have it at all.

My quiet moments are evolving. I like that.

This summer was busier and more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be. The hours spent teaching, mentoring and managing the Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team of students challenged my mind and filled my heart.

If you’ve been following along with my weekly posts, thanks for reading. If not, to catch you up I was given the reigns of the partnership between Wheaton College and MassChallenge. The ask was to choose a group of student and turn them into a successful consulting team that would work with some of the most promising new startups in New England.

We spent several weeks in the classroom learning the basics. I already know that there were some lessons I didn’t teach and must be part of the curriculum in the future. The time on site at MassChallenge was inspiring and full of meetings, laughs, and excellent work.

In the end, we had 31 different companies request our services and projects completed for 17 of them. Our work included developing marketing strategy plans, producing videos, taking headshots, creating social media content and developing a website.

Not bad for a brand new team over six weeks is it?

For some of the students, this was their first work experience. Many of them were working with technology and on projects that they had never thought of doing before. It was fun to watch them choose to shadow on projects where they didn’t yet feel comfortable to contribute but wanting to learn.

They learned how you never know during a requirements gathering meeting if the client is going to be a joy or difficult to work with and that no matter how cool a project sounds if a client can’t get the logistics worked out on their side it doesn’t happen.

Thank you to everyone at MassChallenge for making us feel welcomed and to the startups who we will be rooting for even now that our work together is complete.

I’ve not mentioned the team members by name up until now because I wanted to wait until the end of our time together to share more about them. If you are looking to hire the next great junior member of your team, you should click through and hire one of these marvelous students.

Angel Bird, Alex Stomberg, Jules Bibonimana, Zhuo Chen, Alvaro Guerra Rodriguez, Christina Smith and Keegan Dougless are all going to do amazing things in this world and whoever is smart enough to hire them is going to be happy they did.

Thank you WiN Team for a great summer and working hard throughout. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

My long business career has included managing a variety of people. My shorter teaching career has included teaching a variety of students.

This summer, as I manage seven students in a classroom and an office, has been a challenging and rewarding experience for me.

When you are a professor, the goal is to manage the knowledge that the students learn and try to help them earn the best grade possible. The focus is on them directly.

As a manager, the goal is to deliver the best result for the business you are working for. While independent development and growth of the individual employee is essential, you have to look out for the greater good of the client and business first sometimes.

But, where are the lines when your employees are also your students? That has shown itself to be a fascinating relationship.

This past week the work continued. We held our usual status meeting, and each member of the team was instructed to come with a detailed update of where each of their projects stood, any obstacles from successful completion of those projects and any help they needed from the team.

During this meeting, a member of the team broke one of my few rules for the summer when they shared that they had delivered a completed project to the client without me seeing it and approving it first. This went from being irritating to infuriating when after the meeting I looked at the work, and it was less than stellar. 

The mistake wasn’t going to cause a stock price to plummet or even a reaction from the client (thankfully), but I am not one for pushing out less than excellent work, and this didn’t fit that criteria.

I worked with the student/employee to make sure things were fixed, and everything worked out fine.

Today, though I needed to sit down and talk through the whole situation with them. The key for me is that we all make mistakes and we are always learning. I want to make sure that they never do this again in and to make them as successful as possible in whatever career path they walk down.

It wasn’t a comfortable meeting. The important ones rarely are. 

In the end, it was worth it and in my heart, I know that this student will make a great employee for their future managers. We laughed as I mentioned to them someday in the future they’d need to have a talk like this with an employee and they’d look back and laugh as they remembered. 

The more I think about, and the more I reflect, this is precisely why Wheaton College puts such an emphasis on experiential learning. Why we push the students beyond the assignments in the classroom and out in the real world where memorizing facts alone does little for your success.

This summer the WiN Team has spent time in the classroom and the trenches learning. Nothing ever goes wholly smooth, and while there have been a few hiccups this summer, there has been nothing that has dampened how proud I am of the team and the work they’ve done.

The line between professor and manager may be a wiggly one, but I’m glad I got to navigate it this summer. 

One of the most exciting aspects of being a manager is watching your employees grow and prosper.

The hard part is that when you hire someone, you only guess how they are going to perform. You wouldn’t hire them in the first place if you didn’t believe they’d be able to deliver. But, it isn’t until they start working that you find out if they live up to your expectations or not.

As talented and dedicated all the Wheaton College students on the WiN Team are, this past week began to show me how different each member of the team is. They bring different work ethics, approaches to projects and personalities.

It is crunch time for all of us with only two weeks left in the program and numerous projects are being worked on. While these students have completed plenty of group projects in school, none of them have been part of so many different project teams at one time.

Some have handled it well. Carving out blocks of time to focus on a single deliverable. Others jump back and forth hoping to cover all the bases. A few learned how much I despise the statement of, “I have nothing to work on at the moment.”

This week, the team focusing on Kushae by BK Naturals put their heads down and did nothing but create social media content for them one day. This may sound like a simple undertaking, but some of that time was spent learning Photoshop and Canva so that everyone could contribute to the image creations.

There was a big smile on my face as I reviewed the images and messages they developed. I was a little worried when they first signed the contract because of how much work needed to be done, but they stepped up and delivered. It’ll be fun to see the clients reaction to them all and even better when they start going live across their accounts.

We also had a big win this week with the delivery of a promotional video for the findSisterhood app.



This company was one that the team identified they’d like to work with earlier in the summer, so going from that desire all the way to a satisfied client was an excellent experience for all involved.

Founder, Ana Pompa Alarcón Rawls had this to say about our work:

“The WiN Team was amazing. When we worked together, they had the best attitude and were very professional. The result of their work is incredible. I’d immediately hire them for my own team. I especially want to point out how extremely friendly every single team member is, it makes all the difference.”

On top of this work, there is a lot of brainstorming and strategizing going on for a variety of clients. We took some time to hole up in a conference room and focus specifically on the differences in the B2B world because three documents are being written for startups in this arena.

There is also research being done for an Influencer Marketing campaign and reviewing of financial documents to help a client do better. While not the focus of our work, our team caught a mistake in a client’s financial calculations that hopefully will help them in the future.

There is plenty of work still to be done in our final days. I know a lot of my time will be spent reviewing deliverables before turning them over to our clients.

From the beginning, my hope for this team was that they’d all learn new skills that would help them in their future careers and it feels like that is precisely what is happening.

Yesterday, the rain didn’t want to stop and when it did a gray humidity stuck around to remind you that it wasn’t a day to be outside enjoying the world.

Most of my day was spent reading and finishing Creative Quest. A must-read for anyone who knows in their bones that they are creative.

We had the rug in our living room cleaned so that isolated us to our sunroom and my office.

Pausing, I looked around my office. The dog beds were in here, so Jaz was fast asleep on hers. I laughed as I composed the photo and still am not sure how she sleeps this way.

The photo switched me into observer mode. The variety of books, photography and outdoor gear, my choice of art on the wall and the randomness of the souvenirs that could be seen.

A friend from college on Facebook mentioned that all of these things had been part of my life as long as she had known me. That made me smile, but also made me realize how right she is.

Looking around the rest of my office, on my desk around my fingers as I type this and in any backpack, I have with me on any given day there is the same variety.

Books – They feed my soul. My Kindle has a never-ending library of books that I want to read. Having that library with me at all times makes me feel good. The stack of books to read and ones available to flip though make me happy. I’ve had friends who decided to get rid of all their books because of the space they take up, and that baffles me. While I appreciate downsizing and the minimalism lifestyle it isn’t for me.

Any time I need a jolt, I can slide a book off the shelf and get what I need. There are photography books, travel memoirs, cookbooks and a few comic books. When I need a reminder that I am creating things of value, I only need look at my shelf of the books I’ve written that have been translated to other languages and it helps balance my mood back out.

Gear – My name is C.C., and I’m a gear lover. It doesn’t matter if it is for camping, photography, video or anything else. I love gear.

I’m always trying to find the best gear to use in every situation. That is why you’ll see a GORUCK GR1 sitting next to my Evergoods CP24L and my Eagle Creek suitcase still sitting here from my recent trip to London. My Canon camera is laying next to an old Samsung one and a Google Pixel. My Benchmade folder is laying next to my Serepick kit.

To put down my coffee cup this morning, I had to relocate the new microphones that arrived last week from Shure and R0DE to test out and review. There is an endless sea of cables and connectors. No matter how much I prune down and focus in on the best gear for me, there will always be plenty around me to choose from.

Art – Hanging on my office walls are a couple of Chank Diesels and a bunch of Hugh MacLeods. There are also a few of my photographs, my prized signed Dogma poster and a poem my Great-Grandfather wrote. Part of me thinks I should change out the art from time to time, but each was hung for a reason, so it keeps me from changing them. But, I need to have creativity hanging around me to help inspire me. It adds a layer of comfort and a blanket of inspiration.

Walk through our house, and you’ll find a different variety of art. Paintings from Laura’s Great-Grandfather, a painting we bought on a trip to New Orleans and a couple of special photographs from friends. Everyone has different tastes and styles, but art is something to be appreciated, and I’m always interested in looking at more.

Souvenirs – These are not the shot glasses and t-shirts you find in every airport, but more personal mementos from my travels over the years. The crystal Coke bottle from one of my favorite client projects, a hand-turned mug from Fargo, the challenge coin given to me by a loving fan, the rug I bought in Istanbul and my iron buffalo from speaking in South Dakota. While they all may appear random and without thought, each of them is on display for a particular reason, and I can tell you the story behind every one of them.

Sure, they get dusty and take up space, but they also give me an instant smile. One look at the top of my desk and I’m instantly transported back to Ghana, Amsterdam or my fifth-grade performance of The Lorax.

Why do I tell you these things? Why not?

I write to get the words out of my head and into the soul of a few that might read them. Perhaps a bit of it is because as I looked around, I realized how badly I need to clean my office, and while I know this has to be done, I know that piles of new things will appear in the coming weeks and months.

Having a home office and studio is a true blessing for me. It empowers me to do the work I need to do in an environment that benefits my soul. Being surrounded by that which makes me happy is the icing on the cake.

What do you surround yourself with? Take a few minutes to think about it. If nothing else, I hope it makes you smile.

Watching a new team come together, gel and start delivering results feels excellent.

Throughout my career, I’ve been lucky to be a manager or mentor for younger staff multiple times, and I’ve always found it rewarding.

In previous posts, I’ve shared how unique our Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team is. These seven students are majoring in a variety of topics from economics to creative writing. Before this summer, most of them might not have considered a career in any type of consulting and yet this summer that is the type of work they are doing.

This week the first two projects were completed for our MassChallenge clients.

The first was a quick re-edit of an overview video for LuminDx who are hoping to help patients and physicians address challenging skin diseases using artificial intelligence.

The client had all the footage they needed but wanted it edited down to a short and fine-tuned overview video.

The second was for Candorful, who work with veterans to prepare for civilian job interviews.

They needed an original video that could play at the MassChallenge Showcase on their table. Something that could loop and give an overview of their services if the founders were busy talking to people.

Both of these projects had tight deadlines, and the students stepped up to make them happen. In both cases, the clients were delighted with the results and hoped to work with us again before the end of the summer.

While these projects were going on, our work request form kept pinging us with new requests. As a team, we decided it was time to pause requests until we delivered on the variety of projects that we had already agreed to take on.

Each member of the team is the project manager for several different companies and member of multiple other projects. While each student has individual strengths, they are all learning new skills as they apprentice under and shadow more experienced students.

It is fun to watch someone set up their first shot on a video camera or to brainstorm a social media strategy. They’ve all learned that one of the hardest tasks in consulting is managing clients and their expectations.

This morning we had a status meeting, and it was fun to see how comfortable the team has grown with each other. Joking and challenging each other. Not being afraid to share an “out there” idea, when a few weeks ago they might have hesitated.

With so many projects going on, I’m trying to help and mentor as much as possible while allowing each student to grow and learn by doing the work. So far, they’ve done great, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so.

Sponsored travel journal post for Virgin Atlantic to celebrate their new #BeChoosy economy seating options. They paid for our London experience, and in return, I share my thoughts and photographs from our time there. 

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London is a city full of art, culture and good times. After several visits, I can confidently say that it is always a good choice when looking for a great travel destination.

My daughter shares my never-ending wanderlust, and I’m glad it worked out that she could join me on this adventure. While the specifics changed numerous times, we knew that in the end, our Chapman DNA would empower us to roll with it all and make the most of the trip,

Virgin Atlantic designed this campaign to raise awareness for their three new ways to fly in their economy cabin. Based around their #BeChoosy hashtag, travelers can now choose between Light, Classic and Delight seat option. All of them include delicious food, entertainment, and irresistible personal service. In the graphic below you can see the different options clearly explained.

They designated me as the “Classic Influencer,” and as we took our seats, it was apparent they were new and improved. Gone were the standard headrests that many airlines have. Replaced with padded leather that felt good as I raised them a bit and laid back against them. There was the standard amount of leg room, and the only complaint I had was that the seat back pockets were rather small and tight so my headphones didn’t fit in them.

In a moment of pure marketing surprise and delight, a member of the cabin crew approached and told us to grab our bags. She walked us up to the Upperclass section of the plane and encouraged us to enjoy the flight.

My daughter has never flown this way and decided to fight off going to sleep to enjoy some of it. Her hot cocoa and cookies went perfectly with her late night movie choice. The in-flight entertainment options on Virgin Atlantic flights are numerous and free for all which was a nice perk on the flight home when I’d watch three different films.

Best perk for me was the Fastpass through customs we were given so that we didn’t have to wait in any of the lines. If flying Virgin Atlantic, look into how you can get one of these because as a frequent traveler this was a perfect way to start our morning in the United Kingdom.

On the ground, we connected with the team and headed to the Moxy Stratford to check in and drop our stuff. This hip hotel is part of the Marriott chain and looking at their Instagram feed showed me they liked to have a good time. While we didn’t find any crazy kangaroos or giant toothbrushes in our room, we were greeted with this fun message.

Stratford is far outside of downtown London and is currently under massive construction. I expect if I were to return in a few years it would be a bustling new area of London, but for now, outside of the Olympic Park, the train station and the shopping mall, there isn’t a whole lot going on. Must be why the Moxy’s 24-7 bar is so popular and always packed with patrons no matter the hour.

Our strategy was to stay awake and not waste any time in our hotel room except to sleep at night.

“If we are in London, don’t we have to see Buckingham Palace?” asked my daughter.

It wasn’t on my list of things to see, but my community had voted that we walk the city to take in the sights and over the next few days we’d put in just over 36 miles of walking according to my Apple Watch.

The Palace is always a site to see, but sadly Big Ben is under heavy construction. We got a good laugh at seeing that they left the clock face on one side exposed so that people could still tell the time and know that it was, in fact, the landmark under all the scaffolding.

Walking around London on the 4th of July made us smile. While there would be no fireworks or backyard barbecue, we figured the next best thing was to find a small pub and grab a plate of fish and chips. At The Liberty Bounds Tower Bridge, we enjoyed our dinner and discovered the deliciousness of curry sauce on fries. Who knew?

My daughter is a mixed media artist, so a lot of our trip was planned around creative inspiration. On my last trip to London, my friends had taken me around to see a lot of street art, and thus I knew if we walked up to the Shoreditch neighborhood of London we’d find plenty of inspiration, so that is where we headed.

This neighborhood is one of my favorites in all of London. A crazy mix of restaurants, shops, and art around every corner. We tried the most delicious Ghanaian chocolate, enjoyed perfect gelato under a park tree and found the most extraordinary variety of art.

Watching Emily find bits of inspiration, styles, and smiles among the art warmed my heart. As a father, you want your kids to discover their calling and anything I can do to help with that I will. Heck, I may have made the perfect photograph for her first exposition poster.

The next morning, Virgin Atlantic had scheduled us breakfast at Sketch. Part art gallery, part overly pink brunch spot.

Scooting into a corner booth, there was freshly squeezed juice, strong Kona coffee and tiny portioned yummy plates of food. It was an Instagrammer’s heaven, but not my type of preferred breakfast spot. Fun, but a bit too fancy for my tastes. If you ever do go, be sure to swing by their restrooms where you’ll experience a unique gender-neutral bathroom. Be aware though that while you are taking care of things, others will be there for the selfies.

With satisfied bellies, we took in the nearby shopping district. Emily was excited to pop into a Dr. Martins store and a variety of other little shops. If you enjoy shopping, London is a perfect city for you with everything from the major brands to the smallest of boutiques. Something for every budget and desire.

One of the benefits of this trip is we hoped to be able to sneak in a college visit.

Arriving at the Chelsea College of Arts, Emily instantly loved the neighborhood and vibe. What isn’t to like when it is located across the street from the Tate Britain Museum and a short walk to a park? While most of the staff was on vacation, we were lucky to meet a helpful support staff member who gave us a tour of the campus when no one else could be reached. Because of her helpful heart, it is safe to say that Emily will be applying this fall. Thank you, Tess.

Tate Britain was the first art museum I’ve ever been in with Emily since she began taking art classes. I learned so much as she talked me through art history and shared what made each period unique. I appreciated the decades painted on the floor as you entered each new room of paintings. We also both fell in love with the work of modern artist Lisa Brice who we look forward to learning more about.

After more walking and refueling at Nando’s, we arrived for our Thames Rockets adventure. They give boat tours of the Thames River and once outside of the London city borders can open up the engines for little high-speed fun on the water. The rush of fresh air mixed with the comedy of the hosts made for a great time. After walking around the city, it felt great to kick back on the water for an hour and not have to do anything but enjoy it.

Neither of us was ready to call it a night yet, so we found our way to the Seven Dials neighborhood and explored. Most of the shops were sadly closed by the time we arrived, but there is always something to see in London. It was fun to watch the theater crowds pour in and out of the pubs after taking in a show.

With our hotel being located far outside of downtown London, the Tube is easy enough to navigate that we had no problem getting home at the end of the nights. While the cabs didn’t know where The Moxy was, it is hard to miss the purple lights when you exit the train station.

In the morning, I grabbed some coffee in the quiet lobby of the hotel. While it is crazy and busy at night, once the early morning breakfast crowd is gone you can find yourself alone to grab one of their many books, a cup of coffee and your thoughts.

Virgin Atlantic has partnered with Patissier Eric Lanlard to bring his delicious Cake-Boy creations to select flights starting this fall. They will be serving a unique version of an afternoon tea service to entire flights. Not only were we going to meet Eric and try some of the treats that would be served, but he was going to teach us how to make a few of them personally.

My daughter loves to bake, while I prefer cooking. The science of baking is too precise for me and my preference for a little of this and a bit of that. But, when I need to, I can buckle down and bake, so I was excited to see what we were going to make.

Eric was down to earth and over the top friendly. We all instantly liked him.

Over the next few hours, we made savory macarons, pistachio financiers, and bee pollen scones. I have to say that the rock-hard lumpy triangles that pass as “scones” here in America have nothing to do with the moist circles of yum that we made and enjoyed here. I’m thinking that they will appear on a Chapman dinner table sometime in the future as a new style of biscuits.

After we finished baking, we were treated to a formal English Tea. This is something I’ve never done on previous visits to London, so it was fun to experience.

All enjoyed delicious sandwiches, champagne and a variety of sweets. It was fun to eat the items we had just learned how to make. Eric even had one final surprise for us with signed copies of his latest book Eric Lanlard’s Afternoon Tea to bring home. While I won’t be serving afternoon tea anytime soon, all of the recipes would make for great appetizers at any future gathering.

While we were eating a text message popped up on my phone. Emily said she was initially worried at the way I jumped upon reading the block of text on my screen, but then she saw my huge smile and wondered what was up.

It turned out that my two dear friends AJ & Melissa were in London for the weekend and they wondered if we’d have time to connect. These are two of my favorite humans on the planet, and they happened to be finishing up a meeting and going for a drink directly in our path. Once tea was finished, we headed for Shakespeare’s Globe, and when Emily wasn’t allowed into the cocktail bar, we moved into the lobby to catch up.

Watching AJ talk with Emily about her future, Melissa and I shared a knowing smile and nod. Here were four Misfits in London. No idea when or where in the world our paths would next cross but knowing that we’d always be there for each other. Genuine friendships are like this. Love you both and miss you already.

Since we were in the neighborhood and it was Emily’s top destination in London, we jumped on over to the Tate Modern. AJ had suggested we take in the Picasso exhibit and the special tasting menu in the restaurant. I’m glad we did both.

By the way, if you are between the ages of 16-25, there is a new program called the Tate Collective that is free to join, and members get £5 tickets to all exhibits. Emily signed up and now says she has to return to London to fully use her membership. Who knows, perhaps she’ll have a piece of her art one day hanging on the walls.

Days before we boarded for London, I learned that Pride in London would be taking place while we were in town. Emily had been bummed to miss Pride weekend in Boston, so there was no way she was going to miss this since we had no other plans.

It was amazing to see the pure love and happiness by the thousands upon thousands of people we saw during the festivities. We arrived early to get a good spot near the end of the parade at Trafalgar Square. The conversations with the people we met make me smile as I reflect on them. Never know who you are going to meet at an event like this.

Thank you Virgin Atlantic for being a sponsor of the parade. It was a pleasant surprise to learn and made me appreciate working with you on this trip even more.

Walking through the SoHo District during Pride was an experience. Mix into the fun that England was playing (and would win) their World Cup game and the energy level was as high as it could be. Turn any corner, and there was a celebration of one sort or another. What an amazing day!

Usually, a delayed flight home is the last thing any traveler wants, but thankfully we found out about our two-hour delay before leaving for the airport.

Not one to waste a gift of a few extra hours in a country, we checked out of our hotel room and headed to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which was in the neighborhood. We knew it was near since the ArcelorMittal Orbit can be seen from everywhere in Stratford.

It is a beautiful park that sadly was lacking in pigeons, and the ones that we found were scared of the bread that Emily wanted to feed them. I’m not one to go looking for pigeons, but Emily wanted to feed them, and they had nothing to do with it. You can’t begin to appreciate how much this bugged her.

After a quick lunch and scoring Emily her dream pair of Dr. Martin’s we grabbed our luggage and headed to the airport.

As our car weaved through the streets of London, it gave me time to reflect on the few days we had just spent in this inspiring city.

London has all the culture and excitement of New York without the hurry and hustle. It is a city, I’ve grown to love and appreciate and that I wish more people got to know beyond the landmarks and the fun accent.

Virgin Atlantic asked me to #BeChoosy and go on an adventure with them, and there was no way I could say no. Thank you to all involved in empowering me to take my daughter along with me. We created memories that will never be forgotten.

Plus, if she ends up going to college there, I might be flying from Boston to London a lot more.

You can never know someone’s work ethic before you dive into the trenches with them.

This past week, my team of Wheaton College Students went from the safety of our campus to the reality of the Boston start-up scene at MassChallenge.

As I sat in the creeping traffic, I wondered how they would all do. Some people need their own space. Others crave stability in their schedules. Not everyone can handle last-minute meetings, shuffling schedules and demanding clients. I had faith in my team, but now it was time to go to work.

Before the students arrived, I went up to check out the space and make sure things were ready for our arrival. On the elevator ride, I said good morning to the woman riding to the same floor as I was. As soon as I finished telling her about the team she said, “We have to work together.” and in a moment we had our first client.

It is a good lesson for everyone. Say hi to people. Introduce yourself. You never know who is waiting in line for coffee with you, riding an elevator with or sitting next to on a plane. A simple “good morning” can lead to amazing things, but you’ll never know if you don’t say it.

Once everyone arrived, we were given a tour of the MassChallenge office. It is a sweeping, open floor environment. Long community tables, brightly colored conference rooms, a maker space, kitchen full of goodies and an event space complete with a garage door to close it off when needed.

I had fun watching the students react to everything and later as I talked to them about their first day I heard everything from “wow, this is huge” to “I thought there would be more suits.” For some of them, this was their first day ever at work.

Once we got settled in, the team broke up into pairs and began going around and introducing themselves, the team and our services. We had created a flyer that explained in detail what we were about and how long we would be available to work on projects. The founders were told that to request our services all they had to do was fill out an online form we had set up.

Selling yourself is never an easy task. I’m horrible at it. Some of the students were naturals at sales, and I made a point to mention that to them. It is a skill that not everyone possesses, and it is a critical tool towards being successful in whatever career you choose.

By lunchtime, I broke the news to the team that we already had five companies requesting our services. By the end of the day, it would be up to eleven. As I type this, it is up to twenty-three in total.

We divided up the projects based on who was interested and assigned a project lead to each of them. This student’s role would include being the point of contact for the client and to run the requirements gathering meeting.

Our plan was to have meetings with all potential clients and then at the end of the week to sit down and go through all of them to determine which ones we had the time, skills and desire to work with.

I’m personally excited to share that one of the companies I hoped we would get a chance to work with, Collettey’s Cookies, filled out our form.

A few weeks back, I had seen a news story about Collette Divitto, who after years of not being hired because of her Down Syndrome decided to start her own company. Now, she is taking meetings around the world and making not just tasty cookies, but job opportunities.

She is an inspiring young woman CEO, and I’m proud that we will be working with her and her company this summer. Oh, and if you are curious about her cookies, they live up to their name. The whole team agreed they are amazing cookies.  

Remember that woman on the elevator? Her name is Pat, and she is the Co-Founder of Candorful, who are working to teach interview skills to veterans.

They were the first client meeting we had and the work they hoped to have done had a very tight timeline. They were a perfect teaching example for the team and we talked a lot about how the meeting went, how hard it can be to say no and how to proceed.

I’m proud to say the students have already filmed, edited and delivered a rough cut of their needed overview video. That is exciting!

To celebrate the work kickoff, I took the team out to dinner. We laughed, shared stories and enjoyed some great seafood. It was nice to spend time outside of the office and classroom with these students and see them more relaxed.

As a team, they’ve come together nicely. At the end of the week, the project leads briefed the team on their meetings. As a group, we decided which projects we were going to move forward with and which ones we would have to pass on.

The students are going to be working on a variety of projects including branding and marketing strategies, creating video and photography marketing elements, creative brainstorming, web site development and content creation. If this isn’t experiential learning, I don’t know what is.

This week we are off for the 4th of July holiday, but I know several students are still working on setting up meetings and learning new skills on their own to prepare for the client work.

When we all return, the month of hard work begins. Hope the team is as excited as I am.

There comes a time with every team when you have to stop coaching, teaching or drilling and kick them out of the safety of the nest and see if they can fly. As I write this, that is where we are with the Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team.

I’m sitting outside of the Innovation and Design Building in Boston waiting for them to arrive. To see how well they planned out their morning commute. I’ll always believe that “early is on time and on time is late” so we will see if they took that to heart when I taught it to them.

The month of instructional time on campus has come to an end and the final week was a fun one.

We started it off with my friend Sarah Francomano coming in and teaching them a crash course in media training.

Her years of experience was shared in an open conversation with the students and several of them were excited to connect with her afterward for possible future work and guidance.

Having only taught at Wheaton College for a single semester, there is still a number of faculty and staff I have yet to meet.

Patrick Johnson is an Assistant Professor of FIlmmaking and offered to give us access to the school’s filmmaking gear and to specifically walk us through using the Orah 4i camera and how we might use it to shoot 360-degree videos.

It was fun to watch the students who had not ever used this sort of gear before getting full of excitement and wanting to learn more. My mind was a bit shook when I had to show one how to use a zoom on a standard DSLR camera as they had only taken photos on their phone before.

We decided that the next lesson to learn was the art of shooting interviews. A student member of the team took the lead and walked us through setting up lights, how to focus properly and the basics of shooting these kinds of videos.

To put into practice what they learned, we went out on campus and filmed a few interviews with members of the team. They quickly learned the “fun” of trying to film videos on a busy campus with landscapers, campers and other distractions causing the starting and stopping of videos.

The team was eager to do a proof of concept video for Wheaton’s marketing team for a virtual tour of the campus. They decided that the library lobby would be the optimal place to see what could be done and we quickly learned that this new media format comes with a set of challenges all it’s own.

We were all excited by the possibilities that this sort of medium opens and had a good conversation about where and when we might be able to use it for our MassChallenge clients.

The team has arrived, so I should wrap up this post.

Today, I get to see how they perform as a team and selling our services. I believe I’ve taught them well, but now the work begins and I’ll find out for sure.

The answer to the question will always be no because there are endless new mountains to climb and paths to walk.

Creative Quest is inspiring my mind, Luke Cage: Season 2 opening my eyes and Post Traumatic thumping my ears.

Yesterday, my team of Wheaton students finished up their classroom time and next week we roll down to MassChallenge with a drive and purpose. They’ve come together and I hope I’ve prepared them appropriately.

Is the proof always in the pudding?

The days begin to get shorter today and as the sun sets and the moon rises I’m faced with the question of what am I doing.

I’m teaching and parenting. Living and loving.

All of it is soul satisfying and yet the urge to do more is always scratching at the edges looking for a loose thread to play with.

I watched in awe last week as the guys from Studio Fresh Boston took my photographs and incorporated them into beautiful pieces of art. I had hoped to be able to hang this one at home, but there were other plans for them. I’m ok with where they are headed. Knowing something I created is a piece of something that will be seen every day makes me smile.

The gates are open for me and yet I let the ugly doubt monsters roar in my ear when I know they are wrong and only there to challenge me to push past.

The idea book is overflowing. The creation bucket is suffering a drought.

Never expected Quest Love to be the human who would give me the kick I needed, but I’m thankful he did.

Let’s do this!

No matter what course I’m teaching, I always try to mix in life and career advice into my lessons.

You won’t see me highlight these on the whiteboard with a call out, but I tend to mix them in where appropriate. Caring for my students beyond their test scores is in my DNA, and thus I hope each of them works hard and achieves their goals in life.

That is how I’m approaching this summer with the WiN Team at Wheaton College.

We might only have this summer together, but I’m working hard to build a foundation in each of these students that will help them throughout their careers. They may not realize why I’m teaching them some of the topics and lessons that I am, but the hope is at some point down the road they are going to have a lightbulb moment and think, “Ahhh…So that is why Professor Chapman taught us that!”

Our week began focusing on our LinkedIn profiles.

Each student had one in various states of completion. The goal was to accurately illustrate what they were doing this summer on their profiles and to make sure they knew how to utilize the network to find jobs and network with other people. We also covered some of my best practices including my advice to act like a human and not use their automation tools.

Also, since I love taking portraits and another member of the team loves photography, we went out on campus to make sure that each student had a professional headshot. I loved that my style and the students were completely different so now each student has several options to choose from.

Plus, we knew that we needed a team photo for our marketing materials. We decided to take a “professional” one and then a more fun one. Which do you like better?

I decided to use one of my lectures from the Managerial Communications course I taught at Bentley University on writing for business and updated it for the team.

To put into practice what they had learned, I had them split up into teams of two. The goal was for each group to write ten different tweets for DropZone For Veterans and then we would mix them all and edit/critique them as a team.

The students quickly learned that while tweeting is not hard, writing multiple tweets for a company without saying the same thing over and over is harder than it sounds.

I was proud to see that they took into consideration the audience they were trying to reach, sharing things they hoped would be retweeted and pulling quotes from the company founder Courtney Wilson who also happens to be the Entrepreneur in Residence at Wheaton College. Be sure to follow @DropZoneForVets on Twitter to see their work and find out more about this needed company.

Our team has come together and gelled nicely. You never know when you bring together such a diverse group of students how it is going to go, but these seven have genuinely impressed me.

To test the team further, I decided to give them their first project without me.

The assignment was to create a two-sided, full-color flyer to advertise the team and our services to everyone at MassChallenge. They also needed to come up with 2-3 short paragraphs that could go into an email to market ourselves.

I told them that I was reachable by phone or email, but they were to figure this out and deliver to me when they felt good about it. While the final product isn’t complete yet (lots of little tweaks here and there), the first few drafts were well done and showcased to me that their writing, marketing, and communication skills are exceptional. Plus, I loved how they used the photographs we took earlier in the week and incorporated them in the flyer.

One more week on campus and then we head down to MassChallenge.

There is a wide range of emotions flowing through me right now, but in the end, it will be nothing more than another first day of work. This is such a fantastic opportunity for the students, and I’m having a great time being part of it.

Hope you’ve enjoyed following along with my posts.