In the fall of 2007 I entered a contest to become one of 6 bloggers for RBC. I submitted a one-minute video and the public voted for a month. After the smoke cleared, I was one of the winners and I went on to blog about everything from shaving, to retirement, to scooters. I was even chosen by RBC’s travel agent to blog about a European bus tour, visiting London, Paris, Rome and several other cities.
In mid-October of 2007 I was walking on my university campus and noticed a promotion for student banking deals in our student union building. Curious, I went in and spoke to someone. I set up an appointment to meet with a lady who would help me get the best banking package. Part of what she handed me was a brochure that outlined some of the bank’s programs and initiatives. One of these was something called RBCp2p:
Imagine a bank bold enough to let students talk honestly about banking. The online info exchange made FOR students BY students.– The Brochure
Having procrastinated, I set out on the day the submission was due, to record a video. With a $200 camera and tripod in hand – and the sun setting – I spent an hour capturing footage that I would later edit using Windows Movie Maker. I tried over and over to get the wording right, to not stutter or mumble. In some cases, I must have repeated myself dozens of times. I was determined to get this thing made and uploaded in time. This was the result:
This is the money blog for people who need answers – and Nick has a creative way of finding them.– RBCp2p Blog
While I was located on the East Coast, the other 5 bloggers were located in or near Toronto (4) and in Vancouver (1). Our boss, or host as he was called, was also in Toronto. We gathered in Toronto once to kick off the blogging campaign (where we were given our Macbook Pros, Panasonic camcorders, and other goodies) and a second time to renew our collaborative forces.
The next part of the blogging story takes us through 9 European cities, including London, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris. How did I get there? Find out for yourself how my European Discovery turned out!
Above all else, being a blogger for RBC taught me how to motivate myself while working entirely separate from my colleagues. When together, the 7 of us (including our boss) had such an amazing creative connection, but most of the time we were in our own worlds. Although we were all part of the same team, we only met up twice in 10 months. This was also my first foray into video editing with Final Cut, to create our video blogs. In addition to expressing myself via the written word, I learned to do so with video. I also learned a lot about finances, money, loans, debt and other topics that we dove into.