From Idea to Impact: A Journey of Entrepreneurship

Join us as we delve into the dynamic world of innovation and leadership in higher education! Bobby Lubaszewski explores the transformative power of UMBC's Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership (EIL) graduate program. The program equips students with the skills and knowledge needed to lead and innovate in a rapidly changing world, offering a unique blend of experiential learning, strategic planning, and project management.

Bobby shares personal experiences with UMBC's EIL program, revealing how hands-on learning has directly impacted professional journeys. You'll hear about integrating academic studies with professional responsibilities, the significance of practical applications, and the influence of strategic planning and project management courses on leadership styles.

Don't miss this insightful discussion on how to thrive as a leader in today's rapidly evolving landscape. Learn more about the opportunities offered by UMBC's EIL program to drive innovation and entrepreneurship.

Learn more about the EIL program: 
https://professionalprograms.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship-innovation-leadership/

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs. And today I am joined by a very special guest, Bobby Lubaszewski. He is the Director of Communications and Marketing with Institutional Advancement here at UMBC. And he is a recent graduate of the UMBC Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Lleadership graduate program. Bobby, it's so great to have you here on the show with us.

Speaker 1  0:27  
I'm really excited to be here and talk about the program and my experiences here at UMBC. I also graduated with my bachelor's in 2010. So I'm a double alum of the University, and I spent most of my adult life here.

Dennise Cardona  0:42  
That's awesome. And just for listeners tuning in, Bobby and I worked together for several years in marketing for the Division of Professional Studies. So we know each other well. And it's just it's really fun to have somebody on here that, you know, is my peer and fellow retriever. And the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership graduate program is a one that I actually looked into doing myself, I did the Learning and Performance Technology instead. But there's so many aspects of the program that appealed to me as an entrepreneur and an innovator. And so I am just really excited to dig into your story to hear about what prompted you to get started in that program and then eventually graduate. So first of all, let me just ask you about your path to this program, if you could share a little bit about why you chose this program. 

Speaker 1  1:37  
Yeah, absolutely. So I started at UMBC in 2015, as a marketing coordinator in the Division of Professional Studies, as you know, we've worked together for several years. From there, I was promoted to assistant director and was constantly thinking about the next step in my career progression. And knowing that I wanted to stay at UMBC and stay in higher ed, it became abundantly clear that it would be beneficial to have my master's degree, because in higher ed, they really like higher ed degrees. So I started looking at potential programs right around 2020. And I knew I wanted to stay at UMBC. And I also really wanted an in person program because I knew that I performed better in in person courses, although the pandemic eventually threw a wrench in that, and I only ended up having one in person course throughout my time in the program. But what really drove me to the EIL program is while I was working in DPS, the program director, Gib Mason would hold his weekly office hours in the lobby of our floor. So I would cross paths with give anytime I had to go to the bathroom. And one day knowing that I was looking at various programs, I just asked him to tell me a little bit more about the MPS in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership. And Gib, as an entrepreneur himself, great salesperson had me hooked right from the first moment, he started talking about the program. And he described it as an MBA with less math. And as a former English major, who is not a huge fan of math that really grabbed my interest right away. And the other thing that really piqued my interest about the program is he started talking about the intrapreneurial track in the EIL program. Because coming into this, I knew I wasn't necessarily looking to start my own business. But the intrapreneurial track really spoke to me because it is about using entrepreneurial thinking and concepts to innovate within your existing organization, which was really cool to me. So basically, instead of coming up with this idea for a business or a product or service, and then going to an outside investor for funding, you're coming up with an innovative new product service within your existing organization, and then using the organization's funding and resources to grow in your existing business. So that was really neat to me. And then throw in the fact that there was a strong emphasis on leadership skills throughout the course communications team building decision making and negotiation. I was really sold from that first conversation with Gib.

Dennise Cardona  4:36  
Yeah, Gib does have a way that he has a special way to draw you in and to just intrigue right away. I know exactly what you mean. I've seen him sitting at that those beautiful tabletops out in that lobby so many times and with a smile on his face and always eager to talk with people about the program about his you know his experiences as In an entrepreneur, I mean, the man has tons and tons of experience with that school, he's the perfect person to head up this kind of a program. And you know, you brought up a really good point, Bobby about the there are different pathways that you can take within this graduate program. And so you decided to take the intrapreneurship, there's entrepreneurship and also socialpreneurship, I believe, as well. So for folks listening in, there are three different pathways that you can take, depending on your interest level. And depending on you know, where you want your career to go. So it's really interesting to hear about the intrapreneurship. Because I feel like maybe there are folks that really don't even understand what that is, and that that was even an option. 

Speaker 1  5:42  
Yeah, it's really interesting. I would say most of the people in the program are your typical, traditional entrepreneurs. There are a decent amount of intrapreneurial students, and then the socialpreneur track, which is one that I had never thought about as well. So that's really for people that want to work in the nonprofit sector. And there's definitely a few of those that I ran across in the program as well. And several of the the courses are tailored specifically to each of those tracks, which is really nice. Absolutely.

Dennise Cardona  6:11  
Now, how were you able to integrate your studies in the program, with your professional responsibilities, could you share this dual role influenced how this dual role kind of influenced your approach to challenges and maybe project management.

Speaker 1  6:28  
So one of my favorite aspects of the program was that it was really big on experiential learning. So we worked with several outside organizations, like the United Way of Central Maryland to help address the ALICE population, which stands for asset limited income constrained employed, we worked with an organization called Create you Network, on the revitalization of the Sandtown Winchester Community in Baltimore. And then we also were able to bring our own projects into the classroom, to work through those and many of the different courses, which was really tremendous and helpful to me, being able to bring some of my own projects, from my day to day work into the classroom, to collaborate with students, professors, and really hone some of this work.

Dennise Cardona  7:13  
What I loved was, I had the pleasure of sitting in on one of your classes once and it was a design thinking class, I believe it was right design thinking. And it was, yeah, and so I was able to listen in on some of those really amazing entrepreneurial projects that you were doing. And I, you mentioned a few of them there. And so that's just that was, to me, a fascinating outcome of the program is that the learners in the program, you're able to go out there in the real world, and help implement these changes in these entrepreneurial adventures, to help bring, you know, organizations that need that kind of help up to speed and raise the level. So I really enjoyed sitting in on those classes. And watching how those projects unfolded. That was really such a cool part of the program, is it's not just sitting there in a classroom, thinking about theory and listening to somebody lecture to you about theory, you're actually going out there and doing these things and implementing change.

Speaker 1  8:19  
Yeah, it was really great. And another one of the good examples of being able to bring my work into the course. So every summer the EIL program offers a special topics course. Because I was only taking one class this semester, I ended up taking three summer courses throughout my time in the program. And the Special Topics ranged from decision making and negotiation, strategic partnerships. And then the one I took last summer was in human resources management, which was perfect timing, because at the same time, I was in the process of creating a brand new position for my team here at UMBC, a marketing technology specialist. So I was able to really work in the classroom and work with my professor and my classmates on various aspects of this job. We did a skills gap analysis to see what my team was lacking and what we could really build into the job description for this new position. We worked on the job description, and we also worked on the job posting that would eventually go live on the UMBC website, I was able to start mapping out the career progression for this position and work on an onboarding process as well. So it was really perfect timing for me having some of these exact things that I was working on happening and popping up in the classroom as well.

Dennise Cardona  9:39  
Fantastic. What long term strategies are you implementing right now at UMBC? And how has this educational background that you received influenced some of these decisions?

Speaker 1  9:51  
Yes, so. So I'll start by saying one of the really interesting things that Gib does with the EIL program and is that he breaks the Capstone into two courses. So you take a one credit Capstone one course early in the program where you really start to think about your final project and what you want to do. And then you take your final capstone to at the end where you're really wrapping everything up and putting a bow on your business plan or project. But the cool thing about this approach is that it allows you to identify the topic for your final project really early on in the program. And then you can use the rest of the courses to start to work on tweak and refine your final project throughout your entire time in the program, instead of waiting till the final semester, trying to come up with something and doing a tremendous amount of work in just a few months. So that was really nice. And the for our the project that I worked on was around plant giving here at UMBC, which ties in directly to the work that I'm doing day to day. And for those that don't know, planned giving, which is also referred to sometimes as gift planning, or legacy giving is really about any donation that is arranged in the present, but allocated for the future, which really means that most of these donations are happening through wills, or trusts, or gifts that are donated through equity, life insurance, real estate, personal property, or things that are transferring to the University really after the donor has passed. And because we are a fairly young university here at UMBC, we just celebrated our 50th anniversary a few years back, our oldest alumni are really just now aging into the time where they're in that sweet spot to think about plant giving. And we don't really have a robust plan giving strategy here at UMBC. So my project was all about adding a new dedicated plant giving officer to our team at UMBC. And I was able to share this plan with the director of major gifts and divisional leadership. And while we still aren't really quite to the point where we're ready to move forward with hiring a brand new position, we've been able to take bits and pieces from that plan, implement new strategies to expand our planned giving and marketing approaches. And we've seen some really nice benefits from that as well. We've had some new people come in and express interest in plant giving, we've had a few planned gifts come through with some of the new things that we've implemented.

Speaker 1  9:51  
Oh, that's great. One thing you brought up, I think it's really important to sort of echo, again, is that this kind of a program is really geared toward working professionals. So the project how it was stackable throughout your your time there in the program, I think speaks to that flexibility and being able to really kind of couple what you're doing professionally with your studies. And so for work in professional, I think that's really important to be able to, hey, you know, to your employer, this is what I'm, I am I am taking some time here to take these courses, but this is what I can, you know, this is the benefit. It's a win win for everybody, and bring it being able to bring that kind of thought leadership into your role from what you're learning in the classroom. So pivotal? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1  13:24  
I think probably my direct reports and my colleagues got a little tired over time, with me bringing some of the things that I was learning in class, some of the books that I was reading, and showing them all the cool new things that we were discussing in class. But yeah, it's really great. And I know, they say it all the time. But it's true that what you're learning in the classroom the night before you can really directly apply to your day to day work the next day. Yeah,

Dennise Cardona  13:51  
I love that phrase. I really do. It's so it's in it's so true. Now, what specific skills from the program? Are you applying most frequently right now in your current role? And could you provide an example of how maybe one of these skills had played a pivotal role in a recent project that you're and you did sort of mentioned that already with the the planned giving? 

Speaker 1  14:14  
Yeah, absolutely. So coming into the course of or I should say, coming into the program, one of the courses that I was most excited about was the project management course. So as you know, as a fellow marketer, in our role as communications marketing professionals, we inherently take on a number of project management responsibilities without really having any formal project management training. So this course was a great way to deep dive into some of those project management skills and concepts that I really hadn't explored before, and was able to implement some of those in my day to day work. Well, I'm not a Project Management Professional, so to speak, and I don't partake in all Have the wide range of project management approaches, I was able to pick and choose parts and aspects that really worked in what I'm doing, and implement those directly into my team's processes, which is really nice. One of the concepts that I always love to talk about in project management, and I haven't written on my whiteboard behind the computer right now is called the triple constraint. So if you think of a triangle with cost, time and scope as each side, and in the middle of that triangle is quality. So you can't impact one side of the triangle without impacting the other and ultimately impacting quality. So one of the things that I always like to tell leadership or partners that we're working with, is when they come and request a project that normally we allocate four weeks to and they want it in two weeks, it's not really practical to do it in the way that we traditionally do it if we want the quality to stay the same. So if we want a project done in a shorter timeline, there are a few things that we can do, we can either increase the cost, which could be increasing the budget, hiring an outside company to assist in the work bringing additional people from our team into the work, we could also decrease the scope. So figuring out what's really reasonable to work on in that shorter timeframe, to make sure that the quality at the end is really the same quality that we strive for in everything that we do. But that's just kind of one of the things that I take away from the course. And now I have a way of explaining this to partners, that is really helpful and beneficial. And lets them say that, while it would be great to do this project in two weeks, really, it's a four week project. So if we want the shorter timeframe, we really need to think about ways in which to tweak the project to make it work and our new tighter timeframe.

Dennise Cardona  17:01  
Sounds like I need to take that class. Very practical outcomes it sounds like.

Speaker 1  17:08  
Yeah, that was one I really liked quite a bit. And I have my project management book next to me as long as as well as a lot of the other books that we read throughout the course that I can reference at any time, which is also a great tool.

Dennise Cardona  17:22  
Yeah. How has the program influenced your leadership style? And how do you embody that entrepreneurship and innovation in your current role at UMBC?

Speaker 1  17:34  
Yeah, so one of the things that I mentioned before that really drew me to the program was that emphasis on leadership, which I think has helped me grow as a manager in my work at UMBC. So around the same time that I was starting the EIL program, I was also starting to manage people, which was a pretty new skill set for me. And throughout the program, I had the opportunity to take a number of different courses that ran the gamut from team building, to communications, innovation, change management, storytelling, decision making in negotiation, which were all skills that really helped me grow as a manager. And I also think, as I mentioned before it my direct reports kind of got a little tired of me talking about the new concepts we were learning the new books I was reading, because I referenced them quite often in our one on one meetings or our team meetings, as I was coming across a new concept that I really wanted to implement in our day to day work. Then again, most of those books are directly behind me anytime I want to reference them, it has been incredibly helpful. And one of the other ways that the program really impacted me is that it helped me weave innovation into my team's processes. So it really helped me start thinking on a more innovative mindset. And instead of just doing what we've always been doing, and kind of going through the motions to start thinking about new ways that we can engage alumni and donors, and not just settle on what has been done in the past. And this is one of the reasons we crafted the brand new position, marketing technology specialist that I talked about before. And one of that roles, primary functions is to pull data analytics, create dashboards so that we can look at what we're doing, and really analyze to make sure that what we're doing is effective and something that we want to continue with if it's not working, what isn't working about it, should we scrap it completely can we fix it? What can we do a little bit differently. And this is also helped free up my time and my assistant directors time to think more strategically about some innovative solutions to some of the problems we've always had. One of the things specifically that we struggle with a lot in communicating and marketing to alumni is we don't Always have the greatest data. So when an alum changes their email or moves to a new house or gets a new phone number, they don't always think, hey, it would be great for me to tell my alma mater about this. So we often find that our data isn't always the best. So we're constantly trying to find new ways to get our alumni to send us those updates. But they're not going to do it if we just asked them to send us updates. So this year, we've been trying to find some new innovative ways to get alumni and donors to self report those contact information updates to us. So we've implemented a few new programs this year that have been really helpful in doing that. One of those programs was retriever love story. So leading up to Valentine's Day, this past year, we were running social media ads, asking alumni who met at UMBC, to tell us their stories, send us some photos of them and their partner at UMBC as undergrads, and then some updated photos now, and let us know how they met and how things are going in their lives. And to do that, we created a very simple form that asks just for name, email address, grad year, and then gave a mechanism for sharing photos and telling those stories. And we got a tremendous amount of response from people who really wanted to tell us their stories, and they were eager to share those love stories with us. And at the same time, it was great for us, because one, it gave us updated contact information for a lot of these alums. And to it gave us some great content that we could post on social media and we got way more stories, then we were really imagining we would, which has been great. And we're still sharing out those stories, because they are still continuing to come in. As new alums See the stories that are posting weekly, it inspires them to share their stories as well, and give us their updated contact information at the same time.

Dennise Cardona  22:07  
I love that the innovation created a sense of community and like rebuilt that sense of community and some people and actually, I saw you, you and your wife, your love story posted there on social as well. So that's such a really innovative solution for a problem a real problem. So yeah,

Speaker 1  22:25  
yeah, it's been fantastic. And the engagement has also been great. Another one that we've launched recently is retrievers read, which is our alumni Summer Reading Challenge. So again, we're inviting alumni to participate in this reading challenge. But to express their interest in sign up for a packet. They're filling out a very short form with their name, email address, and then their physical address. And then we're mailing them out their reading packet, which comes with a welcome letter of bookmarks and stickers, a coloring sheet, and then a reading log for them to track their reading. But at the same time, we're also getting updated information, updated emails, updating mailing lists, and the response has been tremendous. So originally, we ordered 200, bookmarks and sticker sheets, not knowing what to expect. We just surpassed 400, signups, and they're continuing to come in. So I just had to order another 100, bookmark, sticker sheets, folders, and all those fun things. So it's been great. We're already thinking about how we can improve this next year. And just continue to grow and find new and innovative ways to engage our alums in really fun ways. With the side benefit of getting some of that updated contact information so that we can continue to contact them about cool events, invite them back to homecoming, and really keep that engagement going over a sustained period of time.

Dennise Cardona  24:00  
I love it. So creative, it's fantastic. Switching gears, what advice would you give to current students or recent graduates who are interested in careers in communications and maybe marketing?

Speaker 1  24:17  
Yes, so the best advice that I can give any current student or recent grad, interested in communication marketing is to read constantly. I was never a big reader until more recently in life. But part of the reason that I became a more avid reader is because in this world of communications, it's constantly changing and evolving. In college, you're learning some really important skills and approaches to thinking which are universal. But when you're thinking about specific ways to market or specific ways to communicate, that are constantly evolving, and the way that we were marketing to professionals Five years ago, is very different than the way we are marketing to people right now. So it's really just trying to stay ahead of that curve. And reading marketing publications, higher ed publication specifically for me, as somebody who works in the higher ed field, and trying to find ways to implement some of these new processes, along with our normal business practices. Obviously, social media kind of revolutionized what we're doing. And now the big thing that everyone's talking about is artificial intelligence AI, how we're going to weave AI into all of our business processes. And what this really means for us and kind of some of the ethical concerns around AI as well. Is it okay to use AI to craft a social media post? Probably? Is it okay to use AI to write an article for the UMBC Magazine? Maybe not. If we use AI to create an image, do we then have to attribute that image to AI, whatever tool we've used, so it's really exciting some of the tools that we have now. But we're still trying to figure out what it means for us as marketers, and how to best leverage a lot of those new tools. Yeah,

Dennise Cardona  26:26  
you know, with AI thinking of innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship. Ai, to me is like a really great brainstorming partner. That's how I look at AI at this point in my career revolution, and AI revolution. It's not something that I would ever replace with my my day to day. But what it does is it helps me to avoid that blank page that happens to people who are in creative, innovative type of roles. Where it's a brainstorm partner, it's just, it's having an assistant, a virtual assistant that you can bounce ideas off. And then from there, then the magic happens on your own. And that's where that, you know, that creativity comes out and the innovation comes out. It's through that. So it's yeah, it's a partnership. Yeah,

Speaker 1  27:11  
I found it really helpful. So going back to my retriever love stories, when we're posting them on social, we like to post them in the third person. So if you were looking at my love story, it would be Bobby and Joelle met at UMBC in 2006. And going into our story, but most of the stories that our alums are submitting are written in the first person. So it was tedious to kind of go through those stories, and switch them from first person or third person, I can drop them right into chat GPT, say, rewrite this story in the third person from Bobby and Joella. And it will automatically make those changes for me incredibly quickly. And then obviously, going through and just giving it a quick read to make sure it didn't change anything, and alter the story in any meaningful way. But yeah, just using that tool has been a great way to speed up some of the process the manual processes that used to take me a little bit of extra time.

Dennise Cardona  28:13  
Indeed, it streamlines things, which is wonderful. Absolutely. My last question for you is in what ways has your role at UMBC contributed to your personal and your professional growth?

Speaker 1  28:27  
Yes, so as I mentioned earlier, most of my adult life has been right here at UMBC. So I graduated with my BA in English in 2010. And then I left for about five years to work for a small web design and digital marketing firm in Catonsville. But I came back to UMBC in 2015, as a marketing coordinator in the Division of Professional Studies. From there, I moved on to Assistant Director before departing from my current role over an institutional advancement as the Director of Alumni Development, Communications and Marketing. But UMBC has given me a ton of opportunities to grow, both in my career and as a professional. So I have become a much better manager over the last several years. The EIL program has helped play a role in that as well as various mentors that I have had at UMBC. Another great opportunity that I've had at this university is I served on our professional staff senate from 2017 through 2023. And two of those years, I served as president at the Staff Senate, which was really impactful for me, and also really challenging because probably about a year and a half of my two year term as president was throughout the pandemic, which right there was a learning experience in and of itself. I was I had the opportunity to be part of UMBC's COVID-19 response working with staff to get through the very difficult transition of going fully remote for almost two years completely. And what that meant for staff, not only as professionals, but as people, it was mentally taxing to make some of those changes and be very isolated. And then also brought in a whole bunch of different challenges that we were working through and PSS, particularly thinking about our staff who are also caregivers, either for young children or elderly parents, who are now in the same environments on a daily basis that we're trying to work in there trying to do schooling. So there was a lot of blurred lines between professional and personal life that we don't have to deal with all the time when students are able to go physically to school and work going physically to the office. So we were working through ways to support staff through some of these changes, working with the leadership of UMBC to implement new practices, and policies to support staff. And that was really great. And I made a lot of wonderful connections. Throughout my time in PSS, I made a lot of great friendships, I came across a few mentors who have helped me along my professional journey, I get coffee with them on a regular basis, at least once a month, where we talk about what we're doing professionally bounce ideas off of each other. That was really helpful when I was trying to decide if I wanted to take this new position and Institutional Advancement. Because it was a big change. I had spent six years in DPS and I really loved it. I loved working with the people there. But this was a great opportunity and being able to bounce those ideas off of people who also work at UMBC and have gone through some similar things was fantastic. And it's just a tremendous asset to have friends and colleagues and mentors like that. 

Dennise Cardona  32:02  
Thank you so much for sharing that, Bobby. And thanks so much for sharing your story overall with us today because there was so many great nuggets in there. And you really do embody that whole sense of community at UMBC. And so it's really wonderful to hear that portion that part, as well as your experience in the entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership program. Thanks again for joining us for this podcast. And thank you everybody else for tuning into this podcast. We hope that you enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, do a search for UMBC's Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Leadership graduate program, or simply click the link in the description.