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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nShortly after graduating from college, I got the call from Royal Caribbean offering me a full-time performing position on one of their cruise ships: Harmony of the Seas. They gave me 24 hours to decide to take the position or not. After a quick call to my parents to explain I was joining the circus, I took the job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Trickline Collective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Having performed full-time for over a year, I started to want more flexibility and autonomy in my career path, and living on a cruise ship didn’t quite offer that flexibility. Thus, I started my own slackline performance company, aptly named “The Trickline Collective”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I transitioned from performer to choreographer for Royal Caribbean, and for the next 2 years the Trickline Collective traveled nationally and internationally delivering slackline performances at corporate banquets, outdoor festivals, and even a wedding in India. Managing my own business meant learning a little about everything: sales, marketing, contract negotiation, website design, and most importantly, the leadership skills necessary to wrangle a group of hippies into doing what I wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An important piece of the Trickline Collective was also film production. I saw a niche within slacklining that needed to be filled: a full-length film telling the story of the slackline community and the disciplines within. To see some of the films that I have produced, check out the Films<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMaster’s in Business Analytics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While I was pursuing my slackline career, there was always a piece of me that wanted to follow a data science path. When shows started slowing down in early 2020, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to move to Austin, Texas and improve upon the statistical and data management skills I had started to build in my undergrad program by getting a Master’s degree in Business Analytics from the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDuring my time in Austin, I gained valuable experience in machine learning, data management, text analytics, optimization, and marketing analytics that I had always looked forward to. For my capstone project, my team consulted with a client in the technology industry to build a machine learning model to predict the probability of a customer contract being won for that client. It was an excellent way to put my newfound skills to use to design a system that has actually been put to use at our client’s company to improve sales efficiency and utilization rates for salespeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n