Xander Winkel
April 7, 2020
Xander Winkel (2018)
Xander Winkel helps people start businesses. He’s worked in business development for almost 8 years, and in that time, he has consulted with over 4000 people on their business ideas and helped them to successfully start over 200 businesses. In his free time, Xander likes to make things like furniture, food, art, gadgets, etc.
What year did you graduate and what was your concentration?
I graduated in 2011 with a concentration in Public Communication.
Did you go to grad school? If so, where? Was it immediately after you left Truman or did you wait? Why?
No, I did not go to grad school.
What extra-/co-curricular activities did you do?
I was heavily inivolved with student media, KTRM-TV (now TMN-TV) and KTRM radio. I also was a member of the Film Club.
What was your first job after graduation?
I started as a Program Manager at the Ennovation Center.
What work do you do/What are you doing now?
I’m the Executive Director of the Ennovation Center. The Ennovation Center is a business incubator, we provide information, connection to resources, and business development services to startups. We also manage a 28,000 sq/ft shared facility from where our startups can operate their businesses.
How has your Liberal Arts/COMM education helped you?
I have always told people that I learned how to be a productive, thoughtful adult human during my time at Truman. My ability to critically apply new information and get stuff done, was developed over the course of my education at Truman. All the program related skills I learned, video, audio, design, I have used all of that throughout the last decade for my career, for groups that I volunteer for, and for hobbies that I enjoy.
I use my Communication theory and marketing class principles regularly when I consult and teach classes to our startups. Some common examples:
-Confirmation bias is common in entrepreneurs, being able to identify that and explain in a constructive way how they can more accurately assess the market potential of an idea is helpful for my job.
-The Elaboration Likelihood Model helps our entrepreneurs assess if their service or product is “high consideration” or “low consideration” (central or peripheral) and that helps inform a few key business decisions.
Now, I don’t use the theory names when I work with folks, but the principles help inform the way I think about and communicate with our clients.
And last thing I’ll throw in here is I sucked at public speaking before Truman. I’m glad Dr. Klyukovski didn’t record any of those early public speaking classes. But now, I’m regularly in front of a group speaking on a regular basis.
Which class did you dislike at the time you took it, but now you’re grateful you took it?
I was a TTS (typical truman student), I enjoyed almost all my classes. So, I’ll answer the question this way. I disdained trying out for things for which I was not accepted. I hated when ideas I had failed. But I’m darn glad I tried those things now. I think fear of failure is such a paralyzing force, particularly for students who are used to being high achievers. In my job now, in the realm of entrepreneurship, if you haven’t failed you haven’t tried enough.
What was your greatest accomplishment at Truman?
This is kinda silly, but… It was Truman Talk, my very short-lived late-night talk show I hosted on campus.
Here’s the thing, it was all mine, my idea. It wasn’t an assignment, it wasn’t for any accolade, it wasn’t for anyone else’s group or club. It was something I wanted to do. I got a whole team behind me. I convinced an audience of students that I did not know to come see me. I used all the skills and knowledge I had from the classes I had taken and took the initiative to create something for no other purpose than my own interest in seeing it happen. And at the end, it was incredibly fun, and people enjoyed it.
Xander co-anchoring Truman’s newscast on a Thursday evening (2010).
Why is Truman a good place for a student to study?
Initially, I selected Truman because the campus was serene and the all the people I met seemed genuine.
Looking back, I really enjoyed my professors. They were engaging, genuinely excited about their fields of study, and excited to share their knowledge with students. I really enjoyed the pace of student life, there were always things happening, but I could get away if needed. My fellow students were always kind and helpful. And although everyone was focused on doing well in school, they weren’t stuffy, I remember still being able to balance studying and enjoying college life.
What advice would you give someone who wants to go into the same line of work as you?
If you are looking for a job with a not-for-profit organization, first thing to do is volunteer. It’s the best way to demonstrate your commitment to a cause. It connects you to that organization and to the other non-profit organizations in that space.
What do you miss most about campus/Kirksville?
I miss the closeness. Most of the facets of my life were so close to me all the time. All my friends, my classes, anything I wanted to do was just a 5-min bike ride away. I could do so much in a day and see so many people. That’s harder to do outside of campus life.
And I miss baby Chick Days at Tractor Supply.
What would you say a COMM student should absolutely do while at Truman?
Poster for the student film Xander starred in (2009).
I’d say, anything they really want to do. This is the time in most folks lives that they begin to realize their ability to affect their world. If they want to host a radio program or TV show, do it. If you want to take a class that doesn’t exist, propose it. If you want to start a small business on the side, try it out. Write a book, do standup comedy, stand up for a cause, anything. This would be the time to try something you’ve been thinking about doing. College and then after retirement, those would be the times…
The extra curriculars are key to standing out to employers. You’ll be applying for jobs where everyone else has a degree, everyone else got good grades, but the resumes that show that you did something different and took initiative, those are the applicants that rise to the top.
What tag line would you create for the COMM department at Truman?
“Every industry, every career, relies on good communication.” -OR-
“Every industry, every career, relies on COMM.”
I chose my degree in COMM because I knew that any job would require I interact well with other humans. I figured COMM would serve me regardless of what the job market looked like 5, 10, 25 years into the future. I would encourage students to select a COMM degree for the flexibility of potential job options and the transferability of the skills students learn.
I also hope this is a better answer than what I gave you a decade ago when you gave me the same assignment. 😊
If you could come back to Truman and teach a class for a semester, what would be its title and what would it be about?
Entrepreneurial Communication – Entrepreneurs think and speak within their own distinct terministic screens (Editor’s note: Oooh, a little Burke. Nice!). We’d explore the language of entrepreneurship and how it helps shape the ability of individuals to identify solutions to problems in novel ways.
There are certain terms that are processed differently by entrepreneurial minded individuals. For example, the term “failure” is seen as abjectly undesirable by most. Entrepreneurial minded individuals simply see failure as a necessary, even desirable outcome to identifying a desired result. You know the famous Edison quote.
What did we not ask that you think is important for people to know?
Although I did not look for a career in journalism or media, those skills have served me very well throughout my career. And even right now as I have been taking in information about COVID-19 and carefully crafting messages and policies, I look back to those core principals of journalism when taking in information, making decisions, and communicating with our clients and the public. Like in journalism, I need to vet information for accuracy, provide information in a timely manner, and I need to consider the consequences of what I’m broadcasting.
And, audio and video tech skills are pretty important right now too.
Xander on the news (2019).
If you would like to learn more of Xander’s story, you can follow him on LinkedIn or you can see what the Ennovation Center is up to on Facebook or Twitter.