Hello Periscope, Twitter live replay viewers. Thank you so much everybody for joining me. I’m Michele Heyward woman, a colored stem, civil engineer and founder of the tech company positive hire. What is up? Hey, Shelly, thanks so much for joining me. Today, we are talking about how to create your career network better yet not create, but who’s in your career network? What’s up? What’s up, Natalie? Hey, Danny. So I’m going to get started. Because I want to share some exciting news with all of you, but we don’t give you what you hear for on this mentor Monday. Yes, yes, yes. So Excuse me. Excuse me. First up. First up. There are five people I believe that we should all have in our careers. Network five, not five individual people, but five categories. And I’ll explain to you what those categories are, why those people are important. And let me know if you have them or have had them in your life to help you build your career. All right, so first up is your community, like being here on Periscope, just like rock which are hanging out with you. So social media, communities, you can also have friends, family, former classmates, former coworkers, even who are part of your community. Y’all have fun, you laugh, you cry together. They support you in your career journey, but they may not be able oftentimes, to answer some of your career questions, help you get through those struggles, spots in your career path, right, but they’re all They are cheering you on. And they’re always out there saying, Hey, you know what I got you. Um, and and i with you in every single way. Yes, that is that is your community, then you probably have heard of the second one. And that’s a mentor. And this particular mentor is somebody that is there for the long haul, right? meaning they’re not there for a few months or a year. They’re there for years and you really build a relationship with this person. This person is definitely there to answer your questions. So if you feel me who has had a mentor, put up a one, if you’ve had a mentor, or if you’ve looked for a mentor, because I want to get your feedback, what is your experience been with mentors? Are your mentors still there? Do you meet weekly Do you meet Monthly, like what can you just tell me sort of the How was how was your relationship? Or how have How have your relationships? Been with a mental? Yes, I’ve been a mentor and I’ve been a mentee. And it’s really important to understand that a mentor brings you not only god she but they bring you into their network. So whatever resources they have available, they share them with you, whatever connections they have, they share them with you. So it is a gradual relationship that builds not only to help you with your career, but your mentor generally wants to know more than your career. What does it look like for your life? my longest mentor has been around since 2004. Bay Exactly. So mentors, you really cultivate a long term relationship with some of them. They’re not there for a short period of time. And the reason is when you look at your career, your career generally in corporate, hopefully it’s 2030 years. And that person is probably going to be with you five or 10 years if they’re alive and you’re alive. So they’re there look for them to be there for multiple years in your career, and not just one or two, okay? So they get to know you outside of the professional arena into the personal, they want to see you grow and do well, they want to be there for you, and answers questions for you. Okay. So don’t think that you know, a mentor is just there. And a lot of times you can get them for free. Right. And we’ll get into mentors a little bit later on another mentor Monday.
The next one is we find them and, and they really, really help us and that our allies. Within our workplace. We generally become friends with different people, different co workers. different people in different groups and departments, maybe even divisions within a corporation. And these allies may not have power or authority within the organization. But they oftentimes get access to key information, which can help you with your career. So let’s say you want to get on a major project, you want to be considered for a promotion, they may find out key information for you and share it with you. Your allies don’t necessarily get to bring you up behind closed doors, but they can bring you up to keep people who are decision makers in the organization. So they your allies really do advocate for you within that workspace. And sometimes it’s in an industry and not just in your workspace. So keep in mind when you go out and you’re cultivating relationships, allies can, people may end up being your allies. How many of you have have had an ally in your workplace put up a one or throughout your career, put about one if you’ve had an ally, tell me what that is relationship. How did it start out? Were you on the same project, the same department? Did you go out on the same smoke break? Did you take the same bus to and from work? Because once you understand the dynamics of allies you hate Brandon, you understand that? Having an ally looks very much like having a friend. But it’s a little bit of a dynamic. Yep, smoke breaks. there’s a there’s a bit of a dynamic in how it works. And that they, you know, other than your community, you could consider them in your community, but I consider them an ally because they know personal things about you. They know your career goals, and they know what corporate slike and so they know key information to share with you right. And let me tell you, some of your best allies are often overlooked by other people, their admins, their receptionists, right? Sometimes they’re even maintenance people and custodians. people ignore them all the time. You would not believe in the information they overhear because people fail to respect them because of their job title. They get privy to a lot of information. So your allies sometimes that’s what my mother taught me a long time ago. I got in a lot of trouble. When I say oh, well, he is just y’all I got in so much trouble. He is just the janitor. Who y’all I almost didn’t make it. I almost didn’t make it. But my mama let me live and she explained to me Nobody should just anybody, nobody’s just anything. You need to respect everybody, no matter who they are and what they do, or their job title is. Ever since that day as a kid, I’ve worked in several places where I’ve know all the janitorial staff, auto receptionist, or the admins by first day when their birthdays are just on a different level. And what it is taught me is you build genuine relationships and maintenance people. I can tell you, I was where was our I was working in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a client’s facility in downtown Tulsa. And the the custodian was coming through and she stopped by my desk and we were just talking Her name was Maria. And the reason one reason I remember her name, one of my best sister’s name is Maria, and we were talking Well, she left and the maintenance guys came by a short while ago. They’re and I’m talking to them. I don’t remember their names. We nicknamed one Snoop because they’re really long hair. And he was built like Snoop or whatever, but that’s what we call it. So and and that’s when I was just like, Oh my gosh, this, you know, I was in so we just talked, and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is what I really, really, really, really like about people. So
Oh, I guess I shouldn’t have blocked him My bad. So I’m one of the people. I’m one of my former co workers, one of my co workers at the time, I should say, asked me how did I know their names?
This This, let me explain the how to how our our desks are set up. We literally had cubicles in a hallway. We had cubicles in a hallway. We didn’t have cubicles, sitting. Like in a room, we literally went a hallway.
And they walked by every single day. Every single day, these three people, the two maintenance guys, and in the janitor walked by every single day. And all those months, he had never learned their names. And I said, because I asked them their names. That’s how I know their names. So he was confused. And he had this puzzled look at me as too. That’ll make sense. Because I didn’t know all the clients, project people names, but I knew the janitors name. I knew the
I knew the maintenance guys names I knew I knew so many other people’s names, right. And other people, key people, other engineers their names I didn’t know. I was like, because there are people and they matter and they walk past us every single day several times a day. That’s why I know their names. So don’t be surprised with some of your allies are looked down upon within your organization, but they but because you look at them with respect Four, four, enter and look at them for who they are and not for what they do. They will share with you information that others won’t. They will do things for you others won’t, even though they don’t have power and authority within our organization, so don’t discount those people. Okay? So next is your sponsor. So, the sponsor you don’t necessarily get to pick. Hey, devilish grin, I’m good. Your sponsor, you don’t get to pick. Your sponsor picks you most times. So this sponsor is somebody who they are fabulous connectors and get mad respect from exactly, exactly, um realty goddess. So your sponsor oftentimes is the one who is behind the closed meetings, who is bringing your name up who is getting you on the best projects, the raises the promotions, the better opportunities within an organization. That is who your sponsor is. You oftentimes don’t get to select your sponsor, your sponsor selects you. So what I mean about mean about mean by this is, you aren’t able to say, hey, pick me, I want you to go in that meeting, and sponsor me. I want you to uplift me and make sure I get you don’t get to do any of that when it comes to sponsor. This is what you need to be doing when so that you can get a sponsor. Do not keep your head down at work, and just work hard. You need to work hard and be seen and be heard in your workplace. And some of you’re like well, I just get my boss smile. Work, that’s fine. But guess what? Find out who your boss sending your, your your work to go talk to them. They’ll say Hey, I got a question. Can you clarify this for me? Hmm. So it, it becomes clear who you are, what your role is and why it’s important to connect with those people. Right? why it’s important for you to be a part of I don’t know management, why you should be up for promotions and raises and some of the prime opportunity within our organization. That is what you should be after. Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while scribes for you too. So it is really really important that that you know that Okay, so Don’t the way to get a sponsor is not being quiet. The way to get a sponsor is not just doing hard work, the way to get a sponsor is being seen and heard in your workplace, for other people to be talking about you, and so forth. Okay? Now the last of the five people part of your career, right? part of helping you build and dive into your career. Okay, who’s in your career network? This person is a counselor, and this could be a life coach, this could be a career coach. This is somebody who helps focus strictly on you for a small window of time. It could be 90 days, it could be a year, but they truly want to only focus on what you want to focus on, really push you forward to where you want to be with your career, right. So this person is generally not going to be free. This person really, really focuses on helping you move forward to where you want to be in your career, right? Um, and
they do this because you’re paying them. So they won’t be your friend necessarily. They won’t be there to see where you go. But they would love to hear about how you progress with the plan with the strategy with the information you share with them. Okay. So I have this exciting, exciting opportunity. Where is it? There it is. Okay. It is called career strategy Saturday. Yes. So a friend of mine, Aaron Brodeur are going to be doing a live event on this Saturday, November 10, where we will be taking questions before this this live webinar. During the live webinar, you can do a hot seat or you can present questions to us. Yes. So if you’re interested in career strategy Saturday, you can go to@bit.li for it slash career Saturday. Yes, it will be at 2pm. Eastern Time. 11am pacific time. So Aaron is out on the west coast. Yes, it is on Saturday, November 10. It is at 10am 10am no 11am pacific time 2pm. Eastern time. We want to take your questions and you can go to bit.li forward slash career Saturday. Sign up is completely free. We’ll do it for an hour if you cannot make it live. Still sign up, still submit your question so you can get the replay. The goal is to help women of color really progress in their careers. So that I saw that Laura saw that and don’t feel as though you you, you don’t have anybody within your network within your circle to help you. Right. So take the time sign up. Um, we’ll see how it goes. And maybe we’ll do it again before the end of the year, but for right now, we’re just doing it on Saturday, November to see scribes for you too. I like that. See she up here scribing for me, you can join us We would love to have you guess on this zoom platform. So it so it can be private, but definitely, definitely come join us. All right, everybody. So who in here has had who had As a community, like their family and friends, promoting them encouraging them to grow their careers, like who has that part of their career network already in place? I do. I do. I do. I do, right. They’re always encouraging and pushing me to do more to be more to go even further. And I love them for that. All right, so put up a one if you have that community already in place, a family and friends. You know, social media, that helps you really, really push you. All right. How many of you have a mentor? Not? Well, we don’t change that. You got us now. scraps for you, too. You got us not girl. Yeah, yeah, you got us now. How many of you have a mentor for your career? Right? I have a mentor. Yes, yes. I have a mentor. Yes, yes. Yes. Love it. Love it. How about allies that sometimes has, trust me, I had allies. Man, I don’t even know how to tell you allies on the client side allies on the employer side. I’m just cultivating natural relationships and when times got hard, they were like I got you boo, I got you. That’s you have to have those people. So look for them. You may have not realized one how I found out who my allies were. So it was doing a great like the great housing downturn during the Great Recession. This was 2010 and early 2010 like January February, I posted on Facebook was a oh nine. I post on Facebook that was getting laid off, right? And I was looking for a job.
And people were messaging me saying, Hey, I don’t know if you do this, but you’re smart. We’re always looking for people. I mean, people I went to college with people I grew up with people were messaging me. When our friends messaged me, like you need to stop playing, you know, you’re not getting laid off. I like girls construction. Well, what am I friends? When I kept posting stuff like that, she started preparing to get laid off. Guess what, y’all she got laid off. She calls me she said thank you for your Facebook post. She said, I didn’t believe you. But I do. I went prepare. So I started getting prepared. So when they let me go, guess what? I was like, bye. Deuces. And I was like, wait, what she’s like, yeah, so I did it again a few years later. And the same thing happened. People were messaging in this way. Different people than the previous time, different people who were in my network who were allies to say, Hey, I’ll help you get a job here. Let me know if you find anything here selling or if I think this is a good role for you. I lie to you not. Sometimes when you put out put out a distress call, you will find out who you who people who are in your community are really your allies. I’m just saying. So if you can have some overlap in there, how many of you have had sponsors in your workplace? People in sometimes you don’t know. I found out two men were my sponsors and they were complete assholes. But my background is a mix of hospitality financial assurance, I don’t know what to put. Um you probably have had some of them in there. It just It can be harder to know. Right? It can be hard, but because you’ve jumped industries, it really may help in that people can see your skill set and recommend that you went when you went from hospitality to financial insurance and so forth. So people see something in us. So they say, hey, try this out. Right. So you so I would say you probably do have it. You just may not know how to recognize it. After South Carolina so then what happens was, how many of you have used counselors have how many of you and when I say a counselor, a career coach or a life coach, and this can be doing podcasts YouTube videos, this could be doing I’m reading books, more to conferences, really try to further your career, if you’ve done any self help stuff, to promote yourself in your career, put up a one. Because all of that counts when you’re trying to grow your career when you’re trying to move forward and really get answers. It is not a one and done type thing. It really, really does take effort in work. So don’t think that you are alone in this at all. None whatsoever. Are you alone? Okay. All right. Now, any questions or comments about creating your career network? Yes. See, I knew you did see? Yes. So we oftentimes think we aren’t doing enough when it comes to our career. And we go out and look for answers we and the answers that we’re looking for are specific to us in our situation. And that’s what I found. Which is why we were doing career strategy Saturday’s. It gives you that opportunity to really ask your question and that was in a book, but somebody else may bring up in a panel discussion, but something but your specific situation. All right. All right, everybody. This is mentor Monday for this week. I will be back next week Monday, and I will actually break down how to go about in creating your career network. And what does that look like? Alright, so everybody, have a great week. Keep pushing forward. Don’t give up and I will see you next Monday. For the next mentor Monday. Bye, everybody.