Dinner With Our Alumni: @Matej45678

Hey everyone, happy October! Welcome back to our Dinner With Alumni series. For those that don't know, Dinner With Our Alumni is a series of small interviews that we conduct with 7 Cups Academy alumni/graduates to know more about their journey in the program. Today we will get to know more about the Content Development and Marketing (CDM) Program! The goal here is to spread more awareness about the program and inspire everyone to give it a read!

*knock knock*

-“Whose there?”

“@Matej45678!”

-“Matej4678 who?”

“Matej45678, the active listener on 7 Cups. I started using 7 Cups firstly as a member and then about a year ago, I started doing listening. It's been a wonderful experience so far and the Academy Programs add to the greatness of this experience.”

-“Welcome in Matej45678! We are so glad to have you here today :) what’s for dinner?”

“My grandma’s cooking! She makes it with love and joy, so it’s the best meal there is”

-“mmm, can’t wait to dive in!”

Without further ado, here's Matej45678 for you:

What made you join the CDM program? Fore-mostly, I wanted to improve my writing. I have been involved in some writing activities outside of 7 Cups and I noticed that the content here is nicely written and empathetic, so I decided to join the Program. Also, English is not my native language, so that's another reason why I wanted to improve my writing.

How was your experience doing the program? The aforementioned goals were fulfilled. The CDM Program helped me to continue on the path towards improvement. I was glad that there was more practical work than theoretical and that I've always received some feedback. I believe that there needs to be more empathetic and loving content in order to oppose and balance out the toxic, harmful content which is dominant on social media. And I believe that CDM can lead to more of the first one. This program also helped me to write more fluently in English and I'm very thankful for that.

Which was your favorite activity in the program? I'd say that I enjoyed writing answers to questions for the Q&A section. That's because when I looked at the questions people are asking, I realized that I was asking the same or similar questions myself. This lead me to expressing even more empathy, because it reminded me that we're all very fragile. A combination of empathy, love and kindness is the only solution to the extreme fragility of a human. Of course, it doesn't lessen the fragility, but makes it more bearable, prevents a person from breaking easily.

How did you enjoy writing an article? It was great, I love putting time and effort into writing, because it always pays off. Even when I write something for myself, it's never useless.

What advice would you give to a new CDM trainee? I'm not the best person to give advice, so I'll let Ernest Hemingway tell you: "There is nothing to writing. You just sit at the typewriter and bleed."

What are some new things you learned about content through the coursework? Personally, I rarely encounter some empathetic content and the thing I learned is that it's possible and needed. I've learned other things about content, such as how to write something that would catch the attention of people and still not write meaningless four-word posts. I'm not saying that I'm at that point, but at least I moved forward, which is important.

How can mentors offer better support for the program? By being honest. Of course, here at 7 Cups, we all want to be nice and kind to each other, but that doesn't mean that we should give comforting lies - they're still lies and still harm people. You can be honest and sincere all while being kind, loving and caring. It's very easy to tell a CDM student that his work is awesome, but that won't help him improve, you just rid yourself of your duty to help him. You support and create illusions. Therefore, you harm him. So I think that mentioning the areas that need improvement in a loving and empathetic tone is the main responsibility of CDM mentors.

How did you enjoy creating graphics for the program? It was refreshing. I'm not very good at making graphics (and I'm also lazy haha), so mine were simplistic. It was fun making them though, I'm glad it's a part of the program.

Thank you for reading till here! I would love to hear any suggestions/question ideas that I can add to this series. If you are an CDM graduate and would love to contribute, please PM me so we can set up our dinner! Meanwhile, please give a big shout-out to @Matej45678 for doing this, you're amazing!

If you want to apply for the CDM, please click here.