As you can tell from the title of this blog, I went to Leipzig this past weekend with someone in the IIP Berlin program. My friend, Anna, and I woke up fairly early to catch a bus to Leipzig. We decided to go on Sunday just for a day trip. When we got there, we ate a small breakfast before exploring the city. The weather was beautiful and we had such a great time.

While we were there, we took a two part bus tour that was four hours total for only 11 euros. It allowed us to see much of the city without having to worry about walking around or directions. In between part one and part two of the bus tour, we ate some lunch and saw two churches, St. Thomas church and St. Nicholas church.

Here is the St. Thomas church where Bach is buried.

Here is the St. Nicholas church where the Monday demonstrations took place before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After part two of the bus tour which took us to a nearby lake, we were tired and so we grabbed a treat before heading to the bus stop. Then we headed back to Berlin and went straight to bed, exhausted, but satisfied.

My work week was pretty normal. I spent much of my time writing or doing other tasks. I also got to know the new intern and we’ve become friends. For lunch, I’ve been eating with my coworkers and talking with them. Our company received an award on Wednesday and the three founders went to accept it. The whole event was in Hamburg. I am so proud of all their accomplishments and I really enjoy my internship.

When people ask me what I do, I find it difficult to answer because my company is unusual and a specific type of business. It is a social business that provides a platform for a collection of content, jobs, and events so that people can find meaning in their work and make change even if it is on a small scale. I love writing for tbd* because it’s exciting to think that my words could inspire someone. Businesses probably won’t be interested in us right away especially if they are small, but ultimately, I think we provide an abstract service with real results. I think that companies can benefit from our content and our network.

We make most of our money by posting job listings on our sites from other companies as well as listing events. There aren’t too many other companies doing what we do, but we still have competition. It is challenging to gain the attention of our viewers and direct them to our website. Recently, there has been a push for the use of social media to attract others. My coworker, who is currently in charge of social media, spends a fair amount of time agonizing over captions and asking me if the English sounds okay.

Sales have been steadily increasing since the rebrand and the sales team has so many leads to look into. They have a lot on their plate which keeps them busy every day. Although we make money from our clients, it is important to increase views and page clicks. tbd* is striving for exposure and really needs an expanding viewer base to survive. I’m eager to see what will happen after the award they just won.

Until next time!