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No Plan, No Problem: Nick Close’s Journey Through Uncertainty to Impact
57 Plays3 months ago
Nick Close reflects on his journey from uncertain college freshman to director of strategy and analytics, sharing how a failed exam, a love for learning, and a knack for Excel shaped his path. He opens up about the power of mentorship, the value of trying (and failing at) new things, and how storytelling plays a vital role in his data-driven career. This episode is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring look at how growth often starts with not having it all figured out.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Podcast Goals
00:00:27
Frank Furbacher
All right, Nick, welcome. You are guest number one.
00:00:31
Nick Close
Thank you. i I am excited, nervous, scared, a lot of things to be guest number one. But excited, I listed first. So that's nice.
00:00:41
Frank Furbacher
That's great. Well, that makes two of us.
00:00:41
Nick Close
Yeah.
00:00:43
Frank Furbacher
So Nick, um I mentioned right before we got on, the whole purpose of this is to really um connect but reconnect myself with folks within the Manhattanville ecosystem.
00:00:55
Frank Furbacher
um You and I know dozens and dozens of alums, many of which we're still in contact with, many of which, more of which we are not in contact with. um So Nick, want to roll through and talk about really every a bit of your life leading up to college and we can start it as early as you want.
Nick's Current Role and Responsibilities
00:01:15
Frank Furbacher
Talk about your experience at Manhattanville now, Manhattanville University, um and then talk about what you've been up to afterwards. um But why don't we start with just quickly, what are you up to today? What are you doing?
00:01:30
Frank Furbacher
um What is your professional life like?
00:01:33
Nick Close
So right now, I am a director of strategy and analytics. So I'm sort of like an internal consultant just for one company. um My day-to-day is pretty varied. you know One week, we'll be working on a board deck,
00:01:49
Nick Close
sort of recapping the last quarter, sort of projecting out the next couple. The next week, I'll be sort of doing you know market intelligence on maybe a new thing that we're going try and do or new set of customers we're going to sort of pursue, which is really exciting because it's like, on one hand, things change pretty rapidly. It stays pretty fresh.
00:02:10
Nick Close
On the other, i get to sort of continuously learn about things. um The glass half empty thing is that like I'm perpetually catching up to speed on stuff. So like I'm always bad at my job in a sense of it's something totally new.
00:02:27
Nick Close
I've got to figure it out. And that's a fun problem. So it's it's kind of largely it is like I get to continually learn and and continually try things and get to meet a bunch of people across world.
Professional Identity and Company Overview
00:02:41
Nick Close
the company that I work for that I haven't met before, um but then also you know try and pick the brains of people who might have a particular set of skills or expertise in a field that I'm trying to learn about. So um I guess I'm like a professional learner, which is sort of really thematically important for a conversation about Manhattanville University.
00:03:03
Frank Furbacher
No, that's great. um I will say one of the things I love about my job is that there is almost no problem that is similar to the last. So it's always a problem-solving type of role, which is a lot of fun.
00:03:18
Frank Furbacher
Now, what does your company do?
00:03:20
Nick Close
So very, very boringly and succinctly, Prince T-shirts. um Basically, for all the places you can design your own merch on the internet, um we're a back-end fulfiller for those places. So like many of them don't have the printing capacities of their own.
00:03:37
Nick Close
um But we do. And so we've got facilities in Miami and San Diego, Tijuana, and Juarez, El Paso. And we're also kicking around, you know, potentially further ideas, probably not allowed to talk about them publicly on a podcast, but so we're kind of scattered throughout North America.
00:03:55
Nick Close
And we work with a bunch of different companies that you can design your own merch on, but then also, you know, like places that have sort of like more static um options to choose from too.
00:04:07
Frank Furbacher
Very cool. Very cool.
00:04:08
Nick Close
Yeah, yeah. It sounds not really interesting where it's like, oh, I'm a print t-shirts. um But there's a lot of just kind of like interesting tidbits there of like what you can learn about what's going on in the broader economic environment based on what people are purchasing um and the art that they that
Remote Work and Career Journey
00:04:26
Nick Close
throw up there. It's like very trend driven.
00:04:29
Nick Close
And so I feel like I was really early to the Charlie XCX brat experience because people started buying a ton of brat merch And so I was like, oh, yeah, maybe I learned about that faster than I otherwise would have as a 36-year-old, you know, cis male. So it was – it's still pretty fun.
00:04:50
Frank Furbacher
And where are you located?
00:04:52
Nick Close
I live outside of Boston, um apparently sporting my ah Boston merch today. i live in Cambridge right now, but as you can tell from the boxes, I'm imminently moving to Somerville, which is just right over the border with Cambridge. So it's basically the same thing.
00:05:09
Frank Furbacher
So your role is remote? Are you in office?
00:05:12
Nick Close
Oh, I'm totally remote, um which has been an adjustment, obviously, that we all that many of us had to go through forcefully a few years ago.
00:05:22
Nick Close
And I think there are things I miss about it. um you know Talking to people face-to-face every day is is really nice. But the convenience is I get to pack you know a little bit while I'm on the clock.
00:05:37
Nick Close
Although, don't tell my boss.
00:05:42
Frank Furbacher
So what Nick, tell me about, let's back up to as early as you want to go, but before college, like where did you grow up?
00:05:49
Nick Close
Mm-hmm.
00:05:51
Frank Furbacher
Are you from the Boston area? And then let's get into how you eventually wound up at Manhattanville.
00:05:57
Nick Close
Yeah, so I'm not from the Boston area. I just kind of found my way here after graduation, but from upstate New York. um Actually kind of towards the tail end of a small pipeline of people who came from Spa Catholic in Saratoga Springs to attend Manhattanville College.
00:06:14
Nick Close
There were three or four people ahead of me who were alumni that I knew because they did um like dance and theater stuff they were in choirs with me people that i i really grew to love um shout out dave bedard in particular um for just being hugely positive and influential person um but his experience at the school really kind of influenced because i had no idea what i wanted to do i had literally no idea um but i had a sense of maybe kind of the environment that i wanted to be in
00:06:53
Nick Close
and basically kind of thought that I wanted to do something, I guess, like publicly impactful. And that's really kind of a part of Manhattanville's mission is in a lot of ways um is its sort of integration with the international sort of both political community, but also just kind of community in general.
00:07:14
Nick Close
um that That's always like kind of an undercurrent in a lot of the programs.
Choosing Manhattanville and First Impressions
00:07:20
Nick Close
And so yeah, you had a lot of great sort of ah positive points from from Dave and and and a few others and visited the school and ended up so spending a a weekend with Dave and his roommates as part of like a scholarship visit and quickly just realized that it was the right size for me. I came from a small high school and
00:07:46
Nick Close
that everyone I talked to was just incredibly kind and and really nice and funny. And the faculty that I met that weekend and the more i learned about the programming and and sort of the structure behind everything um just really kind of seemed like a place where I could figure it out um and and still really benefit from that experience. So,
00:08:11
Nick Close
um i had no idea what i was doing but i feel very fortunate that i had the guidance that i had to land in a place that i could figure it out
00:08:21
Frank Furbacher
Yeah, you mentioned Dave Bedard, um someone who I had a relationship with when we were in college as well, and someone who I you know sort of keep up with on social media. And I will say one of the worst slash best things about ah my Manhattanville experience involving Dave Bedard was at my commencement, I had the opportunity to speak as student government president, but I had to follow Dave Bedard, who was senior class president, who gave an amazing speech.
00:08:44
Nick Close
Mm-hmm. ah
00:08:52
Nick Close
As someone who followed him to Manhattanville, I definitely know the pressure that comes with literally following Dave. um But he's just one of the kindest individuals that I've ever met.
00:09:04
Nick Close
And, you know, I think that's the sort of person I'm not suggesting that am in that echelon, but it speaks highly of Manhattanville to me personally, that someone like that would would find their place there, too.
00:09:04
Frank Furbacher
you
00:09:16
Nick Close
and find their opportunities to, I mean, Dave has had huge impact on all of his volunteering work and just literally who he is as a person.
00:09:27
Nick Close
And that's obviously another piece that's integral to Manhattanville's experience is the Duchenne Center and the sort of ethos of doing everything that you can, I guess, to have as positive an impact as you you can on this on this planet.
00:09:46
Frank Furbacher
Yeah. Do you recall your first impressions of Manhattanville, especially like the campus itself, as you went and visited?
00:09:56
Nick Close
I mean, obviously the the castle is probably the thing that stands out the most where it's this like very unique piece of architecture and you're like, oh, I mean, I knew that it was on the it was on the the mailer that I got, you know, it's in the the art outline.
00:10:13
Nick Close
um But until you see it, you're like, oh yeah, that's literally a castle. But the campus itself is just, it's beautiful. It's like, So much green space.
00:10:25
Nick Close
um Everything is, because it's a small university, it's a small campus, everything is close by. And so i didn't feel like really overwhelmed by anything. I'm just like, oh, if I'm here, it's going to take me all this time to get to the library or classes or anything like that. Everything kind of felt like it was contained in the space that was...
00:10:43
Nick Close
not too intimidating, which is a thing that, again, coming from a small high school, I was like, how how am I going to exist with thousands of other people? Like, that sounds insane. um And so, yeah, it just, it felt welcoming immediately.
00:10:58
Nick Close
um and And again, like not overwhelming. It just kind of felt like this this great fit and that I could, you know, see myself there.
00:11:07
Frank Furbacher
How much of an influence was Manhattanville's proximity to New York City, especially you coming from upstate?
00:11:15
Nick Close
It was, ah I would say it was it was hugely influential. One of the things that really that drew me in that first weekend that I was there, there was ah an ambassador from the United Nations speaking. And that proximity was hugely and influential on me, especially of just sort of like, this is sort of unique access to these people who are you know literally you know trying to bridge, maintain gaps internationally. Yeah.
00:11:42
Nick Close
and just have these incredible insights that you would would never really be able to have. Even now as an adult, you know if I'm trying to stay clued in, I can't find quotes from UN ambassadors and or anything like that.
00:11:54
Nick Close
So that access, both to hear them speak and then to have a chance to chat with them afterwards, that I mean, that's sort of unparalleled. um And then the rest of New York City, it's just a huge draw where it's like there were a lot of opportunities for me to do internships and and learn from and experience. Obviously, like as a you know, 17, 18 year old kid, it was like, oh, New York City, that's going to be so fun. Like, there's also that side of it.
00:12:21
Nick Close
um and And the access, you know, was was simple. You just hop on the Metro North and and you're there. And then the the school running the buses too. Although I feel like I missed the bus more often than I than it made the bus.
00:12:33
Nick Close
But that's, you know, my own thing.
00:12:35
Frank Furbacher
Yeah. Yeah.
Academic Life and Influential Figures
00:12:37
Frank Furbacher
So tell me, you you are influenced to go to Manhattanville by a um high school classmate of yours, Dave. You get to Manhattanville.
00:12:48
Frank Furbacher
do you have any idea what you want to study? And do you recall kind of like the path you took to figure out like, okay, now that I'm here, what am I going to do while I'm here?
00:12:58
Nick Close
Yeah, i I think I knew that I wanted to do something in political science in the sort of international politics realm. I also loved history, and so I think like the way that that your sort of freshman year is structured is you can try a lot of things, um and then the the way that the sort of portfolio experience is, the requirements that you have to fulfill, it's a sort of broad array, and so it encourages you to try a bunch of different things. And by encourages you, I mean you have to do it.
00:13:27
Nick Close
um And so that was extremely helpful where it's like, okay, I could take a smattering of the things that i thought would be a part of my major or majors. And then I could also try a bunch of stuff. And so took like, you know, sociology courses and philosophy courses.
00:13:44
Nick Close
And I think ended up, i think it was freshman or sophomore year, just ended up with like two or three professors that ended up being kind of like through lines through my entire experience and was just, know,
00:13:58
Nick Close
um really excited and drawn in by their excitement by their you know um by their sort of combination of expertise but just passion for the topics like these people like they were living their passion um and that was sort of eat that comes across really well and so
00:14:20
Frank Furbacher
And who were they? Mm-hmm.
00:14:21
Nick Close
Uh, so, uh, professor Polly in, in legal studies, uh, in particular, uh, professor Ashkenazi in history. I took all of his courses, um, just like someone who was like truly engaging and part of it was like, he would call on you regardless, like he would call on everybody.
00:14:40
Nick Close
And so you sort of had no choice, um, to participate one way or another. Um, but then also just like, they're very effusive. They're like very, um I, like I said, just sort of passionate about what they were talking about. Professor Kim in political science and Professor Bolling in history as well. So I double majored in poli-sci and history. And so I'm i really kind of you know checking the boxes with that group.
00:15:04
Nick Close
with a But it really kind of like enshrined that I felt like I was in the right place because I was learning from really interesting people and who were extremely passionate and available too, which is sort of like, because it's a smaller campus, because they're not teaching classes with 600 kids or, you know, whatever, um could have a conversation with them after class.
00:15:27
Nick Close
And that helped sort of guide me kind of figure out like, okay, this this is for me. like I can do this.
00:15:35
Frank Furbacher
Professor Ashkenazi is someone who was certainly one of my favorite professors. I was a history minor. um My only gripe with him is that he didn't teach enough classes.
00:15:47
Nick Close
it's Yeah, that's true. There was a finite set, which I guess was nice because you could collect them all.
00:15:49
Frank Furbacher
Yeah.
00:15:52
Nick Close
um But, you know, I'm sure the demand was there where it's like, hey, listen, like, even if it's not in your wheelhouse, just like teach a cow class and I'll take that too.
00:16:02
Frank Furbacher
he um I believe it was his class who pointed us to um the book Man's Search for Meaning, if I'm not mistaken.
00:16:12
Frank Furbacher
It is a book that i read. i think it was the maybe the only book I've ever read, and I was crying while reading it.
00:16:20
Nick Close
Oh wow, okay.
00:16:21
Frank Furbacher
But also so ah impactful that there is a copy of that book literally right next to me on my desk.
00:16:27
Nick Close
Oh, okay.
00:16:29
Frank Furbacher
It is... um
00:16:32
Frank Furbacher
It's one of those one of those experiences with Professor Ashkenazi that um
00:16:37
Frank Furbacher
it was almost as if he was literally doing, like whether it was a ah live show as he was teaching. And it was so engaging with the way in which he would teach that you couldn't help but pay attention and someone who has ah some issues in focusing.
00:16:56
Frank Furbacher
It actually, that's what part of the reason why it drew me so close into taking his classes was because of the engagement that he created inside the classroom.
00:17:06
Nick Close
Yeah, there was no possible way that you were going to be bored in those classes. And I think like, you know, as a, you know, 19, 20 year old, whatever, 9am classes, you know, were not my true forte.
00:17:20
Nick Close
um But feel like I, you know, I, I wanted to be there. You know, there wasn't there was no conflict of interest of just like, well, I could get the sleep that I'm not getting.
00:17:31
Nick Close
um It was like, no, like, I'm, I'm gonna be there, to your point, because it's extremely engaging and um extremely interesting.
00:17:42
Frank Furbacher
So while you're on campus, you're double majoring. So you're rather busy in the classroom. Outside the classroom, what were you involved with?
00:17:51
Nick Close
ah I think like from a from a social perspective, ended up landing with a really great group of people um and then really didn't like find myself from like a extracurriculars thing until I got a little more settled academically and socially. And so later on was in student government for a year, played ultimate Frisbee my senior year, which I continue to play today. So it was like kind of great to find this this thing that,
00:18:19
Nick Close
is now like a decades plus long experience. um But like like going back to sort of the ah campus size With the exception of like, I think my freshman year or my sophomore year or something like that, like there were too many people. And so some folks were like housed off campus and like the hotel, that was probably extremely challenging.
00:18:43
Nick Close
um But for everyone living on campus, everyone is just kind of like right there. And so you had access to, not only your sort of like social group, but all the clubs that met around campus.
00:18:55
Nick Close
There was like a free speech one that I used to go to every so often just to sort of discuss topics from people literally around the world and definitely with people who have different perspectives from you.
00:19:07
Nick Close
um You know, I had gainful employment with the federal minimum wage on campus at the arcade, and that was great because I could do my homework at that point and get paid to do it, which is a great incentive to actually do your homework.
00:19:26
Nick Close
um So there was just, like, you know, everything you kind of needed on campus within, like, a 10- or 15-minute walk, and and that was that was huge. I just i never felt isolated. I never felt...
00:19:37
Nick Close
um you know like i I couldn't find my footing or anything like that.
00:19:42
Frank Furbacher
Were you someone who would stay on campus on weekends or would you go home?
00:19:46
Nick Close
ah I think I stayed on campus for the vast like majority of that. um you know Home was still like three, three and a half hours away, and I didn't have a car until senior year. And so like that was just like a high enough bar to clear of, like well, I've got to go into the city, and then I've got to take a train, and then like figure out what I'm doing from there.
00:20:07
Nick Close
um And so i I think I was on campus, you know, aside from the major breaks, you know, for the vast majority of my time Manhattanville.
00:20:18
Frank Furbacher
Anything else stand out about your experience at Manhattanville?
Faculty Appreciation and Senior Year Reflections
00:20:23
Nick Close
I think like, so we talked a little bit about the passion of the faculty. And I think that's, that also carries over into the staff as well. um I felt like res life was, was really kind of like invested in the safety, but also just kind of the experience of, of everybody on that campus, just in terms of like trying to create events and um incentivize, you know,
00:20:48
Nick Close
Just kind of groups of people meeting and things like that. And like, obviously, the the school did that with the two Fall Fest and Quad Jam in such a big way of these like, massive ways to like, kind of celebrate with your with your classmates who you know, or maybe who you don't know.
00:21:07
Nick Close
um and had a chance to like play on stage at Fall Fest and Quad Jam a couple times. It was really, really exciting and terrifying. Never never again. um But there was just like so much to sort of pick and choose from, of of like what sounds good to you, what sounds...
00:21:25
Nick Close
like fun, what sounds, you know, intellectually interesting. um And that, and a lot of that just came from the people who just kind of also worked there. Like, you know, that was their occupation, but they felt really invested in it.
00:21:35
Frank Furbacher
Thank
00:21:38
Nick Close
And I'm sure like, you know, depending on who you ask, you talk to people like who will mention Craig Donnelly in the Duchenne Center too, which is someone who like, um really goes above and beyond his mission um to try and engage students in acts of service, but then also just kind of like generally like define their passions. Like, you know, he did his own work.
00:22:03
Nick Close
did his own sort of like performances and plays and stuff like that. And you know just a truly enthusiastic, and um even saying that, it's like underscoring the level of energy that that person has.
00:22:16
Nick Close
um That passion that came from across the campus really kind of was really apparent, really engaging. and And really, once I knew once i was there, like i knew I was going to stay there.
00:22:30
Frank Furbacher
Yeah.
00:22:31
Nick Close
when I landed in the right place.
00:22:31
Frank Furbacher
what what um As you're getting and leading up to or into your senior year, and you're now, you know do you feel like when you get to Manhattanville, that experience of leaving is so far away, and then it slowly creeps up on you and time flies, and you hear it all the time that it's going to go quickly, and it does.
00:22:40
Nick Close
Hmm.
00:22:49
Nick Close
Hmm.
00:22:56
Frank Furbacher
But you're in your senior year. You're approaching time to graduate. where is Where's your head at in terms of the next step that you'll take following Manhattanville?
00:23:10
Nick Close
I think like, especially when I was younger, i was not a great planner. And so I also had no idea what I was going to occupation wise. Um, and some of like, you know, I'd done like an intern. Well, I'll say that, like, I guess I, I had sown the seeds, but, but I sort of like my conscious brain had no idea what was going to happen. I'm like, how do I apply skills to get paid to do things? And I'm like, I have no idea.
00:23:37
Nick Close
Um, but had, had learned, um, Microsoft Excel through my internship. And that has literally carried me the rest of my career to date of just like learning this like um very, very boring kind of dry, but to me, extremely exciting and applicable skill.
00:24:00
Nick Close
um And so it worked out, but again, like I had no plan. I kind of had no, um no idea, but I guess like i had just the right amount of unearned confidence of like going through the Manhattanville experience and feeling like I learned a lot and had a diverse set of experiences that I was like, ah, like it it'll work out, right? And I had friends who were much more um focused, ah driven, had a better sense of what they were going to do.
00:24:34
Nick Close
And I was able to learn a lot from them too, just like ask a bunch of questions of just like, OK, so let's pretend like we all know what we're doing here. But just for anyone who doesn't know, like what are we supposed to do?
00:24:46
Nick Close
what are like How are you applying to jobs? like How are you thinking about that?
00:24:48
Frank Furbacher
Thank you.
00:24:51
Nick Close
And was able to also ask questions of professors as well of just like, hey, you were 21 once. twenty one one hike um How?
00:25:02
Nick Close
How does one sort of make that transition? um But it was it was also like, it was sad. it was It was sad to leave this place that's your home for four years and and the great people who you work with who are either professionals or or you know your friends, your classmates.
00:25:19
Nick Close
So um that was a long-winded answer of saying I had no idea what I was going to do. um But through my experiences and and the the portfolio, again, sort of having to like physically piece together my college experience, create a resume, ensure I had all the boxes checked to graduate, um you know that was a sort of really helpful process of like getting my stuff together.
00:25:45
Nick Close
And so I, you know like I said, had that like a little bit of an unearned confidence of like, yeah, I'll figure this out.
00:25:50
Frank Furbacher
So you learned Excel through your internship.
00:25:52
Nick Close
Yeah.
00:25:53
Frank Furbacher
What internship was that?
00:25:55
Nick Close
I worked for a very small, like local Democratic Party as sort of an extension of my political science experience. And then just sort of like needed to keep track of a bunch of information and you know The context of the the whole world was there was going to be like a there was a gubernatorial election in New Jersey.
00:26:17
Nick Close
We were a couple years removed from another presidential election. Then there was the midterm cycles. And so there's just a lot of stuff going on above and beyond this like small local political party.
00:26:24
Frank Furbacher
Bye.
00:26:30
Nick Close
And as, you know, they didn't have a lot of staff. And so it was just like a few interns and a lot was asked of us. And again, it was kind of just like being thrown into the fire a little bit of sort of like, I have no idea.
00:26:43
Nick Close
um But, you know, I was able to kind of like figure it out and realize that I kind of liked the structure and that I, you know, I had a math minor too. And so it sort of like checked that box for me a little bit.
00:26:55
Nick Close
um And so, yeah, I feel extremely fortunate to have found this niche thing to get really into and really invested in. as as Just like almost as an addendum to my college career. like it just It took me in the right direction and I found the thing and and was able to run with it.
00:27:18
Frank Furbacher
So you were interning um with a um political campaign, you learn Excel. It's now time to graduate.
00:27:29
Frank Furbacher
Did you have a job before graduating or is that something you were looking for following graduation?
00:27:34
Nick Close
I had ah like a temporary summer job. I sort of like took a ah friend of mine, um was like, hey, I'm going spend a summer, because I think he was going to pursue a master's degree, and so he wasn't looking immediately for like a ah professional landing spot.
00:27:50
Nick Close
And so he's like, i'm going to spend a summer in Sandusky, Ohio, working at an amusement park. And I was like, cool, I have no plans. Let's go do that. um So did that and was sort of able to use that as kind of like a base of like figuring out the rest of my life, I guess.
00:28:07
Nick Close
um And was able to, you know, kind of like assess what it was that I wanted to do and ended up going back home to upstate New York for a little bit. And again, sort of like honing Excel skills and then moved closer to New York City again to be, you know, kind of near all the action and and a lot of my friends and things like that.
00:28:28
Nick Close
um So no, i had i know I had no sort of like long-term career job at graduation, but I did have a summer are working and and in an amusement park job. So I felt, you know, financially secure, at least for the next few months.
00:28:42
Nick Close
and And that sort of like gave me a chance to kind of figure everything out after that.
Post-Grad Career Path and Skills Development
00:28:47
Frank Furbacher
So tell me, how how did you wind up in your first professional job?
00:28:51
Nick Close
Uh, you know, it's funny, I guess, like, if we count, like, first professional job as, like, you know, not an amusement park after college, I walked into a staffing agency in upstate New York and just sort of interested in work.
00:29:05
Nick Close
And they're like, oh, do you want to work here? And I was like, I guess, sure. And so just kind of, like, ran office, um day-to-day stuff of like helping stay organized.
00:29:18
Nick Close
And again, it was like a good deal of Excel work and like ended up running the payroll. And so had to like find a way to stay organized that way to not ruin people's days and lives. um And then through another classmate of mine, um got in an interview at the Bed Bath & Beyond headquarters in Union, New Jersey, just like a short way from New York City.
00:29:41
Nick Close
And that was, I guess, maybe my first, like, I have to wear a belt and a button down sort of job. And that, you know, that exposure to that sort of professional realm was sort of like the um you know, the the rocket ship, I guess, of like, here's a bunch of things I can learn. And here are a bunch of great professional mentors that I can just ask questions of. And they'll be very patient as this idiot 22 or 23 year old, you know, tries to learn their systems and things like that and like figure out what it means to like actually be a professional human being and like live on their own and stuff like that.
00:30:19
Nick Close
And so, you know, in the same way that Dave Bedard was this like anchor point for me in Manhattanville, the classmates that I met that I could ask questions of that gave me an in at a company, um that community was, I mean, like I'd be nothing without that group of people.
00:30:38
Nick Close
um And so it's just another one of those reasons where I feel like Manhattanville is just this right place because it attracted all of these incredibly smart and kind people who, were able to share their resources and their knowledge and their time.
00:30:52
Nick Close
um And so again, just kind of like failed upwards um due a bunch of really smart and compassionate people.
00:31:02
Frank Furbacher
And you took those Excel skills and did you wind up using those skills at the roles that you've had since Manhattanville?
00:31:11
Nick Close
Yeah, yeah. It's sort of like I've i've added to it. I've you know taken weekend courses and like Google offers a great, you know shout out Google, um offers a great suite of like learning tools that are free.
00:31:26
Nick Close
So just sort of been able to pad my experience there and learn other sort of like coding languages a little bit. And um yeah, just, but but the through line is just like, because I used Excel in this internship, um I'm able to sort of like leverage that as this like base competency and have been able to learn a bunch of other things from that.
00:31:51
Frank Furbacher
And are you going into applications like Power BI or any other applications that kind of ah lend themselves to the the data piece of things?
00:32:03
Nick Close
Yeah, yeah. So so Power BI, a lot of SQL. um My company now uses Looker, which is sort of like an online sort of like data warehousing platform um that's like really intuitive and you don't have to know how to code, which is really nice.
00:32:19
Nick Close
And so a lot of my time is spent um either like building things in that environment or sharing that with others, just sort of like
00:32:29
Nick Close
proselytizing the data a bit um because I've been able to, you know, i'm I'm more comfortable with it. And so I'm able to bridge this gap of like, I can talk about data without like everyone's eyes glossing over too much, just a little bit.
00:32:43
Nick Close
um And so that's, you know, again, just goes back to having to to write a bunch of papers in college to to communicate really effectively um ideas,
00:32:56
Nick Close
Daniel Katz- sorts of things succinctly, although if anyone watches this podcast episode, they will not say this is a succinct man who just talks a lot, but I promise I'm capable of it and and Manhattanville is definitely the reason.
00:33:12
Frank Furbacher
Well, I think it's an interesting skillset because the people ah traditionally, Nick, the people that I've seen who are into political science history, the common next step that you would ask is, well, did you ever think about law school?
00:33:32
Nick Close
Yeah.
00:33:33
Frank Furbacher
Was that ever on your mind?
00:33:34
Nick Close
it I think it was initially, but maybe the this sort of like mountaintop of X number of more years of of learning didn't really appeal to me um where I was like, I was satisfied.
00:33:48
Nick Close
I'm like, hey, listen, I've done it. I don't necessarily want to go back. I've thought about graduate school, you know, for years afterwards. And, you know, that's even still a possibility. It's like they still have, know,
00:34:01
Nick Close
yeah um you know, graduate programs sort of anchored towards people who are working professionals or who knows if I'll be in a place where I can take time off and and feel like it's a direction I want to go in.
00:34:12
Nick Close
I don't think that that door is ever closed, which is really great. As I mentioned, like, I feel like I'm a professional learner where like I constantly have to kind of like re-experience new things for the first time.
00:34:25
Nick Close
um And so, yeah, maybe one day, but yeah, it You know, it never, hadn't sort of crossed the line of like, oh, this is definitely what I want to um Because again, thematically, i I sort of had to like figure out what I wanted to do on the fly. I didn't really have a ah strong plan for for law school after graduation.
00:34:46
Frank Furbacher
And how much of your professional life would you say um has has created um a situation where you you would have to utilize, let's say, the skill of storytelling within the professional world?
Data Storytelling and Market Research
00:35:04
Nick Close
Oh, I would say very frequently. So, um you know, I've talked a little bit about like having to share data information with people. Some of that is storytelling just to sort of like, because instead of just handing them like a data set, you kind of have to like describe how it's meaningful or, you know, how you would cut into it or something like that. But then also another part of my job is to take a bunch of information you know,
00:35:29
Nick Close
basically like drill down into that and share that either with an executive group or a board group or even just sort of like other peers across the aisle a bit who do different things at the company.
00:35:41
Nick Close
um And so it's, I have to kind of like derive meaning from a lot of information, either qualitative or quantitative. And so storytelling is extremely important to that because it's,
00:35:52
Nick Close
um if i can't give the so what of like what i'm producing you know why am i producing it or like why have i kind of wasted all that time looking at something um and so that like being able to understand the meaning behind something and then translate share that with people yeah that's extremely extremely important to what i do
00:36:16
Frank Furbacher
And what, um, when it comes to this, this idea of, you know, mounds of data that you have to distill into, okay, what's the stuff they need to know and what matters?
00:36:33
Frank Furbacher
Um, tell me about like your, your evolution of harnessing that skill and sharpening that tool. It's. It sounds easy, right?
00:36:45
Frank Furbacher
from a ah In theory, like ah just take the main points from all this data that you have and put it together into a nice, cohesive PowerPoint that gets people right to the point and focuses them where they need to focus.
00:36:59
Frank Furbacher
But tell me about like your evolution for learning how to distill that information and how to communicate it.
00:37:08
Nick Close
So I think like you know starting as as like at the sort of bottom of the totem pole, someone who would like run reports or conduct analyses, you'd either be like challenged with finding specific data points or you know the the sort of like ask isn't isn't incredibly high.
00:37:24
Frank Furbacher
Thank you.
00:37:28
Nick Close
And i I've mentioned that like extremely fortunate that as I've moved along in my professional career have been able to work with people who are true mentors, who are truly able to kind of like share with me their thought process ahead of time and like working with me in this sort of like data in the information live.
00:37:49
Nick Close
And so instead of just like, hey, here's the two things you asked for, and then we never have a conversation about it again, it's here, those two things and being asked like why I think they're important or like how, ah how they need to inform decisions that we need to make.
00:38:05
Nick Close
And then really kind of like, feel like I've been able to be hands-on with people as to be like, okay, here's a challenge to what you just shared or okay, maybe I agree.
00:38:16
Nick Close
How do we then, how do you, um How do you convince other people of your viewpoint? um you know How would you convey this to this group of people or this group of people? Because you might be communicating the same data point, but those different groups think about things in different ways. um you know They have different incentives than you do than another group of people.
00:38:41
Nick Close
And so, yeah, I feel like I've i've just been very lucky to to learn from a lot of really smart people, um both in terms of how they conduct analyses, what questions that they ask themselves and of the information, but then also this sort of, and I don't want to say like I have an expertise, but but they certainly did, and now I'm um able to copy them, of how to then communicate that to a sort of diverse set of audiences and sort of like knowing who your audience is and
00:39:13
Nick Close
frankly like you know how many words of an email they're going to read where it's like are they going read all you know 300 words or are they done after 15 and and so it's kind of like you know knowing what what room you have to play with um and so it's it's really just like was able to cut my teeth and and get exposed to a lot of people's sort of experience and knowledge and have been able to kind of run with it from there
00:39:40
Frank Furbacher
Yeah, my company does, um we're very ah big into a very large ah research and insights piece to my company.
00:39:52
Nick Close
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:39:53
Frank Furbacher
um And I am amazed a lot of times at our research team's ability to take all this information, as you mentioned, qualitative and quantitative, and And then succinctly wrap that up into a, for example, one page executive summary.
00:40:11
Frank Furbacher
Hey, here's everything you need to know in one page about all of the hours and hours And likely thousands and thousands of people who were you know inquired, that we inquired for their opinion on things.
00:40:26
Frank Furbacher
And now we're going to wrap this up succinctly for you into one single page, which is, um again, a very notable skill. um Have you been involved with research? Have you done research? Are you typically someone who is getting that information from researchers?
00:40:45
Nick Close
I think it depends on the sort of like research you're talking about. I've been able to aid in some like market research work in sort of like a prior role of like literally you know running surveys online and then, well, first, I guess, designing the survey, running it online, you know and then analyzing that information.
00:40:59
Frank Furbacher
Mm-hmm.
00:41:04
Nick Close
um so and that was that was unique that was sort of new to me uh as of a few years ago and so have only probably dabbled relative to the work that other people are doing in terms of like really really conducting market research or you know folks who are actual like scientific or et cetera researchers so i think a lot of what i do is the synthesis of that research um so my company uses a tool that you know is able to get access to a bunch of like um private equity research on companies and and markets and things like that and so do a lot of reading uh is part of my role
00:41:46
Nick Close
And then, you know, that that like, how do you distill that down and how do you get it onto like one page? It's like, it's still a process that I'm going to be learning about and that I'm going to need to keep practicing because it's like, I want to say everything. Like, I'm like, there's so much interesting information here and you put it all down and you're like, this is five pages. This is like entirely unmanageable.
00:42:07
Nick Close
But learning that sort of like skill as to like how you personally weight those things or or how you think, you your audience would weight those things. that sort of is That process is sort of like, okay, this I keep, this stuff i it's nice to have, and if anyone asks a question, we'll be sort of prepared, but we're not going to sort of make that a part of the, you know the I guess, like immediate presentation or something like that.
00:42:35
Nick Close
But it's definitely it's like it's definitely still a ah skill that I need to actively practice and think about. um Because especially now, you know with like ChatGPT and other resources, where there's just so much information, um and like at literally at your fingertips, just asking, you know before you could ask Google and you had to be maybe pretty good at using brulee logic to like google correctly but now you don't really even need to do that you should check your sources obviously but um there's just a ton of information at your disposal and knowing what the right information is is is the key i guess
00:43:14
Frank Furbacher
Yeah.
Lessons from Failure and Advice for Students
00:43:15
Frank Furbacher
Well, a couple, couple questions for you just to go back to Manhattanville for a second, but you're, as we begin to kind of wrap this up, I want to hear about your favorite memory from Manhattanville, whether it was an experience or whether it's just, you know, when you think of Manhattanville and you get that nostalgic feeling, what is it that you think about?
00:43:40
Nick Close
I think there are like a few examples that are maybe a little funny. um I remember failing my first exam at Manhattanville and asking, like the dumbest question afterwards where i was like i saw the grade and i was like is this out of 100 am i misreading this i couldn't possibly have done this poorly um and that was such a like a structurally important moment for me because it was very early on in my academic career and i was like oh this is this is a little more serious um not that i didn't take high school seriously but
00:44:15
Nick Close
you know, didn't take it as seriously as I could have. But that was the sort of like moment where I'm like, oh, this is, this is for real now. Like this, this all counts.
00:44:25
Frank Furbacher
Thank you.
00:44:27
Nick Close
um And I feel really happy that I was able to like fail that first exam and then, you know, not fail the course. um But that like,
00:44:39
Nick Close
being able to to talk directly with professor. It was in something that was like, it was a sociology class. it was not my wheelhouse, but was able to kind of like have those direct conversations and like, okay, how am I going to catch up? And then how do I sort of like stay caught up through the rest of the course that just like has really stuck with me of like, this person was extremely honest and available with me.
00:45:01
Nick Close
And was able to learn that lesson and then apply it the rest of the way of like, oh, I'm going to do this for real. But these people are also willing to work with me to sort of like help me make sure that I don't screw this up.
00:45:16
Nick Close
And so I think that like very succinctly captures the the Manhattanville experience where it's like this academic rigor that I obviously sought and wanted while still having this like personal connection where like,
00:45:31
Nick Close
I mean, I don't know, but if you're at a large university and you fail your first exam, that could go in a million negative directions where it's just like, well, this isn't for me, forget it. um But because like, you know, the the school, the people who work at the school were invested in my future, um i was able to kind of like not spiral from that experience.
00:45:53
Nick Close
and um And I guess like the only other, the second thing that I remember the most is, on the day of graduation, i had lost my voice. And so I couldn't communicate to people how much their help and work meant to me.
00:46:09
Nick Close
And that was like the saddest part of graduation. Obviously, it's like, oh, it's very exciting. We're all graduating. I'm going to miss all of my friends and peers. But I couldn't tell professors, thank you.
00:46:19
Frank Furbacher
Thank you.
00:46:21
Nick Close
And so I had to like write thank you cards and hand them to them and then like choke out an explanation as to why I couldn't thank them in person. But that really just sort of like stands out because of like because of the massive impact that these people had.
00:46:35
Nick Close
I was devastated that I couldn't tell them about it. um And I guess maybe that like those two memories tie together where it's like I screwed up at the beginning, but folks were so invested in my success that I didn't screw up at the end.
00:46:49
Nick Close
And then I wanted to thank them so badly and I couldn't, which was which is a little funny.
00:46:57
Frank Furbacher
ah Who was your favorite quad jam musical act?
00:47:02
Nick Close
Oh, that's, I, who was my favorite? um
00:47:10
Nick Close
I don't know that I would i really have one. um
00:47:14
Frank Furbacher
Or most memorable? Do you remember who performed? I can remember. think i remember three of them since we overlapped.
00:47:19
Nick Close
You go first, and then I'll agree with you when you say the ones that I definitely remember.
00:47:25
Frank Furbacher
Well, i I still to this day think it was amazing that in 2009, for my final year, we had Pitbull perform at Quad Jam, which was just before kind of like his meteoric rise into what he turned into, which was pretty ah pretty big deal in the world of music.
00:47:34
Nick Close
Yeah.
00:47:45
Nick Close
That's true.
00:47:46
Frank Furbacher
Yeah.
00:47:47
Nick Close
He was like featured or you know the the anchor artist in so many hit songs. um Yeah, I would say that's that's probably the, it's not like my style of music, but in terms of like most memorable, and he's Mr. Worldwide, which is such the Manhattanville thing that whoever whoever secured Pitbull coming was, i don't know if it was you,
00:48:12
Nick Close
but Did an incredible job. Like that is like A plus affordable, but then someone who's going to be you know extremely successful or already was extremely successful to that point.
00:48:24
Frank Furbacher
We also got to see, so the the ones I can recall off the top of my head, um Travi McCoy performed at President Berman's birthday party.
00:48:36
Nick Close
i have no idea who that is
00:48:37
Frank Furbacher
he He had a couple hit songs back in the day. um I can't recall the musical group that he was part of.
00:48:47
Nick Close
okay
00:48:47
Frank Furbacher
He was sort of a big deal. And then the Gin Blossoms were another musical act who were more nostalgic, Had a bunch of hits in like the late 90s, I want to say.
00:48:59
Frank Furbacher
but that sort of like um rock, but not not hard rock kind of thing.
00:49:06
Nick Close
Yeah.
00:49:06
Frank Furbacher
I can't recall any of the others.
00:49:08
Nick Close
I think was fap Fabulous was one of those years.
00:49:11
Frank Furbacher
Yes. Yeah. Yep.
00:49:14
Nick Close
I had forgotten the Gin Blossoms name. I didn't know who they were. then and i still don't know who they are um but i think i think you're i should have i should have said pitbull because like that's just like truly almost unbelievable of like oh yeah you know like maybe one of the most famous people on the planet yeah he performed at our 2000 student sized college it's like a fever dream a little bit
00:49:40
Frank Furbacher
Yeah.
00:49:44
Frank Furbacher
And now looking back, and this could be, you could take this one of two ways. the The advice you'd give to yourself in college, if you could right now, um but in turn, like kids in college today, like what?
00:49:59
Frank Furbacher
What advice do you have for them as they set out and go through those same emotions that we had when we were in college of what the heck am I going to do once I leave this place?
00:50:13
Nick Close
Yeah, I think like because we were, again, forced to have a diverse set of experiences, you know pick and choose classes from a bunch of different sort of like mediums or disciplines in order to graduate, I guess it would just sort of be just like just try as many things as possible.
00:50:31
Nick Close
And obviously, um have those be like good things. I mean, you know we're all going to make mistakes, and hopefully those mistakes are legal, et cetera. um But try as many courses, clubs, conversations.
00:50:47
Nick Close
Just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall because like that is your opportunity to do that. Once you leave, you kind of have to like find your niche a little bit and like get paid to do those things. And you know obviously, like for many, that can be like limiting or depressing or something like that.
00:51:03
Nick Close
But college is your opportunity to just try everything. like It's OK to fail. um and And I think that lesson is is really important. And one that I literally learned my fourth week at Manhattanville, that like it's going to be OK to fail.
00:51:19
Frank Furbacher
you
00:51:20
Nick Close
Now, you've got to learn from it and grow from it. And that's an opportunity to do that. And that's great. But it's you're going to fail. like That's fine. um And you're going to find things that aren't necessarily for you.
00:51:33
Nick Close
But then you know. And it's going to help inform the next decision that you make in order to find the thing that is for you. um And then, like, on the cusp of graduation, it's just, I guess, maybe the same thing. It's like, your first job isn't necessarily going to be your job forever. It might be, and that's bananas. Like, if you're, like, a basketball player or you find that you love sales or something like that, like, that's great. That's cool. Run with it.
00:51:58
Nick Close
um But it may not necessarily be the thing that you have to do the rest of your life. So... You know, again, don't commit crimes, but try a bunch of stuff and fail at it and and learn from it.
00:52:09
Nick Close
And then that's because that's like, you know, that's all i can do.
00:52:14
Frank Furbacher
Love it.
Conclusion and Shared Memories
00:52:14
Frank Furbacher
Well, Nick, I want to thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it and ah really enjoyed catching up with you, hearing what you're up to now and ah brought back a lot of memories of Manhattanville. So thank you.
00:52:27
Nick Close
Yeah, Frank, that's right. This was a pleasure chatting with you. And then I'd forgotten every Quad Jam performer. And so I appreciate the trip down memory lane of just being able to name some names and think about great experiences that I hadn't thought about in in a long time.
00:52:41
Frank Furbacher
Thank you, Nick.
00:52:42
Nick Close
Yeah, thank you.