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Creating Industry Connections (Virtually)

Graduating amidst a pandemic was not how I pictured spending my senior year of college. Life changed in an instant. The job market shrank. My classmates and professors were at home, scattered around the globe instead of in a single classroom. Person-to-person interaction became rare and exclusively transactional.

We are slowly emerging from our quarantine shells with a wide range of mixed emotions. Networking may have seemed like it took a backseat, but it has merely gone underground. You just must dig a little deeper to find it. Here are the ways I found that work in creating a virtual network right out of college.

Reach Out to Established Contacts

The connection web extends further than you could ever realize. If you want a job at BlahBlah Agency, there’s a chance that your cousin has a friend who has a brother who has a hair stylist that has a son who knows someone who works there. That’s why you have to thoroughly exhaust your network and your network’s network.

The bottom line is that you never know who knows who, so be nice to everyone. Try to maintain these relationships like you would a bridge. You don’t need to watch it all the time, but you might need to cross it sometime, so make sure it’s in good shape before you drive over it. Send out an occasional email asking how they are. It will do a world of a difference in the long run!

I recommend keeping an industry contact excel sheet. Not everyone has a perfect memory, so it’s nice to have a sheet detailing each connection’s:

contact information
company
position
whether you went to the same school
- This proves to be a helpful conversation point!
how and when you met them
- This last one is important because it shows that you took the time to remember how you met this person. It makes you look professional and makes them feel special.
who they connected you with (if applicable)
- It’s good to realize what connections you have in common. Sometimes it’s the glue that holds two people together!

This sheet will be a lifeline in the future when you’re trying to remember at which company Bobby works. Treat your contacts with respect, and you’ll be rewarded greatly.

If you haven’t gone through your recommended connections, do that first. If you’re on the job search, some recruiters are basic and look for the 500+ connections. Therefore, knock that out as much as you can with people you know. Check for people you’ve met through school and work experiences. Connect without discriminating between industry or field. You never know who knows who like I said in the beginning.

Next, look through the connection’s networks and industry employee pages. You may find some interesting people. Asking to connect because you have something in common is not outlawed. Just make sure to introduce yourself in your connection note! For some tips on this, try NetWorkWise’s article.

Remember, LinkedIn is a tool, so network responsibly.

Sign Up for Newsletters

I already hear you complaining. Hey, I hate filler emails bombarding my inbox just like anyone else, but it sometimes can offer tremendous value. Signing up for newsletters of popular industry news sources and industry networking groups gives you a leg up. Oftentimes, these sources host networking events – trust me, you want to be in on these events. Plus, the people composing these emails are ALSO people in the industry. Connections are everywhere. Use it to your advantage.

Attend Webinars

Personally, I’ve gained the most amount of contacts through this route. You’ll receive a ridiculous amount of emails from newsletters expanding on their webinars. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM. Plus, many of them are free and occur at convenient times. Pick one you’re interested in, sign up, and mark the date.

Hot tips for webinars:

Dress for the occasion
- Although in many webinars you are on mute and your camera cannot be seen, dressing professionally gives a sense of confidence and purpose.
Research your speakers
- They are interesting people, I promise. Check out their LinkedIn. You might have an unexpected similarity to be used in a conversation later!
Check your tech
- It’s always a good idea to get familiar with the platform and test it out multiple times.
Check the comments
- Many times, people will leave their LinkedIn profiles in the comments. Copy the links in tabs to connect after the webinar.
Ask questions & know how to
- Asking questions is always a way to put yourself in a good light. Make sure you know how to do it on that platform.
Thank the speaker
- Send them an email (if you can find one) or a message on LinkedIn. Yeah, there’s a possibility they won’t get back to you. But hey, if they do, that’s a high-up connection you have now!

Connection Highway

Your network can offer you a railroad of opportunities. It may be harder to connect over a screen or phone, but it’s better than nothin’. The big thing is that everyone is in the same boat. One day we will return to live networking events, but we must make do until then. Virtual networking is a way of the future. Hone it like a skill and you’ll never regret it!

Training Your Gut: Business Edition

Training Your Gut:

Business Edition

Over 40% of CEOs said they rely on intuition over big data for decisions. That’s a hefty percentage.

While big data and analytics are monumentally helpful in making decisions, a seasoned intuition proves itself irreplaceable. If the good old gut feeling was not to be trusted, humans would have perished centuries ago. It’s our evolutionary advantage. Learning to hone and wield it wisely can make or break your business decision-making. That’s why you need to practice it like a skill!

How It Works

Our brain is always making connections and paying attention to patterns. Each pattern is stored in long-term memory for future situations, according to Psychology Today. The thing is… are the right patterns being created? It all depends if you have the right practice and environment. Let’s say whenever you answered the phone, your friend, Moe, gave you a cookie. After a while, you’d come to associate those two occurrences as a pattern. You’d probably be looking for Moe and craving cookies every time the phone rang.

That’s a completely far-out scenario, but it makes a point. In the real world, you’re not getting a cookie when you answer the phone, so that experience would give you a faulty gut feeling. That’s why it is imperative to develop true gut intuition with devoted practice.

Hone Your Intuition

Forbes explains that intuition is the body’s way of sensing threats before rationality comes in. The body has a physical response to danger or a lack thereof. Sometimes it’s a twinge in your stomach, a headache, and/or tensing muscles. Through time and experience, you learn what your signals are.

Once signal recognition is down pat, put yourself in an environment where you can learn the right patterns. Immersing yourself in your business is the way to do this. Whether conscious or not, your brain makes patterns of events. Just like computer coding, your brain stores it as an if-then statement.

“If I touch the hot stove, then I will get burned.”

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gets stored the same way

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“If I diversify my stocks, then I will mitigate my risk.”

Building your pattern arsenal with trial and error will sharpen your intuition and make you a better businessperson.

Your Gut Versus the Robots

The robots do have a lot on us… the ability to calculate thousands of equations in seconds, develop highly-accurate charts, and keep our society running efficiently.

They enhance our human performance insurmountably. Big data offers insight like never before. It gives validity and weight to a particular decision. However, the intuition our race has spent centuries developing should not be tossed aside. The two should be used as a system of check and balances. Business decisions are delicate. Finding the balance between intuition and data can determine your career success. Keep working at it and you’ll find what works!

Vanquish Excuses, Start Exercising

You said today’s the day. Running shoes awaiting the sweet slap of pavement sit by the door. Earphones and athletic clothes lounge on the dresser, ready for the workout ahead.

YET. Somehow all those signals and reminders didn’t motivate you to get moving. We push it off and push it off, leaving it to be tomorrow’s chore.

Working out feels out of reach to so many people. What people tend to forget is that stay fit is for you… not to impress your super fit cousin or compare yourself to a godlike celebrity. Harvard Medical School states that a good workout “reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones.… [and] stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators.” Exercise makes you feel better, physically and mentally.

There are so many reasons to get moving. So, stop making excuses. Put down that slice of delicious cake. Strap in for a proper fight against the excuses that hold us back from getting fit!

“But I Don’t Like to Do Anything.”

No, you just haven’t tried everything. There are so many ways to keep moving. There must be something out there that you’d like. It’s all about trying things to see what fits. Maybe accompany a friend or family member on their fitness ventures. It doesn’t matter what it is. Keep an open mind and you’ll find something you like to do.

Here are just a few activities to try from the top of my head:

Rock Climbing
Lifting
Running
Dancing/Zumba
Hockey
Roller Skating
Tennis
Hiking
Paddleboarding
Pilates
Kayaking
Yoga

HealthLink has a pretty comprehensive list if you are looking for more things to try!

“But I Don’t Have Membership.”

Ah, that’s unfortunate for some activities, but that doesn’t have to limit you. Memberships can be expensive (and are quite complicated right now). Perhaps that means investing in your own equipment or finding cheaper ways to stay in shape. You may not have a fancy dancy Super Fit Trainer 3000, but you can get some weights and resistance bands. It keeps you moving and leaves plenty of room for different types of exercises!

“But I Don’t Have Someone to Teach Me.”

Trainers. That’s another story, but you can find a slew of online personal trainers. They adapt to your ability and find ways to suit exercise for you.

Don’t have the mula for a personal trainer? Check YouTube. Ask your friends. You never know what you’ll come up with. Personally, I have found a lot of wonderful yoga and Pilates instructors online. I attend those classes whenever and wherever I want, which is a huge plus! Many of them give hints and tips as you go, so you don’t feel awkward and alone, working out in your living room.

“But I Don’t Have Time.”

You can always make time for you. That’s it. If your body is not functioning the way you like, then try to make changes to your schedule for fitness. Try different times in the day to get some movement in, even if it’s a 15-minute walk outside. A little exercise is better than none y’all.

“But I Don’t Want To”

Now, that’s a you thing. But hey, if you picked this blog post out of the sea of other blog posts AND made it all the way to the bottom,… I assume you’re looking for a challenge. So why not? Give it a go. Figure out what works and doesn’t work for you. A very wise saying comes to my mind when talking about this… What was it again? Oh yeah…

JUST DO IT. 🏀⚾🎾🏐⚽🏈

5 Critically Important Boundaries for Remote Students or Workers

The world plunged into the remote work deep end overnight. Suddenly, teams worked out of Zoom instead of conference rooms, pajama pants instead of slacks. Although this shift came on much faster than imagined, workers worked desperately to developed strategies to cope.

As a fresh college graduate, I jumped from virtual classes into a remote job, so here are some necessary boundaries I’ve learned amidst the craziness…

1. No Place Is Safe… from Commotion

If your roommate/mother/partner wants to find you, they will. And they will do so, loudly, during that video recorded calc test or in a company meeting. It doesn’t matter how many times you tell them about this super important event-thing, trust that they will forget. Therefore, you must take every precaution to avoid a video call tragedy:

If possible, find a room that is secluded and has a working lock.
1. This keeps your brother from walking in shirtless during your history class.
Place a sign nearby saying that you’re working.
1. It’ll gently remind your roommate/family/partner to not bang on the door, asking if you’ve seen their phone.
Be aware of your surroundings.
1. If you know that your roommates are going shopping at 2, plan your “I need complete and utter silence” task for that time. Working around others’ agendas is just as important as your own.
Keep your peeps in the loop.
1. Openly discuss what you, your roommates, and teammates need from each other. Relay how you want to be communicated with during the workday and after hours. Develop your home-work balance.

2. Keep a Schedule

If you’re like me, you need to plan your day or else nothing will get done properly. Remote workers to job searchers… they all give this advice. Schedules definitively carve out time to finish that project you’ve been procrastinating on. Blocking out your day is a phenomenal way to efficiently get things done and feel incredibly accomplished.

🔌Shameless Plug: You should check out this blog to get more deets on schedule blocking.

3. Take Time for YOU

Buffer reports that the biggest struggle with remote work is “Unplugging after work”. It is so tempting to respond to those burning email inquiries after hours. Here’s the thing though: if you are too stressed to function, you probably need some time for yourself. The magnificent thing about remote work is that your schedule is flexible. Use that to your advantage. Schedule out time for you, so you can stay sane!

Source

4. Separate Your Work and Living Space

Working on your bed may seem pretty awesome, but the temptation to fall asleep is all too alluring. That’s not the only thing you mess up in that scenario. You, also, ruin the place you’re supposed to relax. Instead of associating your bed with zzz’s and comfy pillows, it morphs into the place of that stressful client meeting.

Physically separate where you relax and work. Set up a worktable… maybe even a room divider to differentiate these parts of your life. Also, Entrepreneur recommends working out of one space because it is more productive in the long run. So, get your area rolling and stick with it!

5. Set Up “Water Cooler Talk”

Remember that last time Tanya and Ricardo spent 15 minutes of the meeting discussing the X-Games. Yeah, that’s awesome to hear in certain times, but not during valuable work hours. A side effect of remote work is feeling isolated from your team members. This loneliness can spill over into work hours. That can easily be changed by setting up remote “outings”. You can get all your catchin’ up and gossippin’ out there instead of in the meeting. It keeps things professional and creates community between members.

Oh hey… here’s a relevant social media post. Check it out here.

Work Smartly

These little tips and tricks can determine the success of your remote learning/work experience. Find what works for you. Some people like music playing in the background. Others can’t stand it. Some people do well working by themselves. Others need more interaction in their day. All combinations of these things are great. Include them in your boundaries. Set these values and safeguard them. Whatever helps you accomplish your tasks is what you do!