building community

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Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to guidance counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had guidance counselors in middle school. We had guidance counselors in high school, but we didn't really have guidance counselors in college and now as professionals. We don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. And so that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it for it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you need to reach me, Taylor at vacovac.com is how to get and touch me old fashioned email social media at tdsintdessey. And finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. All righty, what's going on? Everybody happy Friday stoked to be with you all this morning. Solo show today. I am sorry every Friday now I'm starting to do solo shows Friday. The reason why I do solo shows on Fridays is because I have guests Monday through Thursday and guests are great.

I absolutely love the guests I have on my show. I have lots of thoughts and lots of rant and expression of the job search and like topics they build in communities. And so I'm very excited to be with y'all today. Take talk a log in more than S.D. viewers to print in Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter. It's great to see all this morning again. Happy Friday just me today. And today we're going to talk about listen, we're in conference season right now. People are doing meetups and people are going to networking events and I continually want to kind of dive into networking events because so many people struggle with it.

It is such a hard thing to navigate. Networking events meetups conferences you name it. So we're going to talk about that again today and just a mouth out to the market. But first and foremost if you are tuning today, hello say hey, I would love to hear where you're turning them from. Chris Jarvis what is up buddy. It's great to see you. And so the first thing if you are tuning into this, if you're scrolling through like Tik talk, you know I have viewers watching TikTok right now. I do this morning show every day at 9 30 a.m. Central and this show stemmed out of COVID.

So I am a recruiter. I'm an engineer and recruiter. I focus on recruiting soft engineers across the country. And when COVID hit, I was working 14, 16 hour days talking to engineers all day across the country who were scared, who didn't know how to find a job, who didn't know how to write a resume, who didn't know how to network. And I was like man, there's got to be a better way of scaling these conversations than just having one conversation after one conversation after one conversation after one conversation after one conversation. It's like, alright so how can I fix this? And so Vaco, the company I work for basically was like hey listen, get linked in live because you know, because we're doing this LinkedIn live thing and I was like alright sounds good.

So I got like did a lot of like no I'm going to start going live every day. I'm going to start going live every day and share a little bit of my knowledge to the internet because people I know the job search can be terrifying. So that's what guidance council 2.0 is again go live every day. If you are watching this on TikTok, we'd love to connect with you. If you check out the link in my profile, I have all my links there and it would love to connect with you all. But this platform is too cited, right? guidance council 2.0, the reason why I go live every day is too full, right?

The first thing is a networking platform. I tell people to comment to engage, to say hey and the reason for that is because I want you all to slide into each other's DMs. I think networking is awkward. We're going to talk about that today and my tips and tricks on how to network and networking is so awkward. So what I realize and what I viewed especially now that conferences are back, that all you need is one thing in common, right? Typically if you're networking at a code conference you're like hey I see you're wearing this college t-shirt. I went to that college right and then all of a sudden boom you have something in common.

So I want this show to be the thing that you all have in common. So that's why I tell people to say hey, because again we're not in the metaverse yet, right? If you do not say hey then no one knows you are watching. So do not be a lurker on this Friday because I would say this I've had a bunch of people at DMs and say oh my gosh I've met so many amazing people on your show keep doing it. And so that's why I tell people to say hey to engage to network. Also to this is a, it says a platform to learn something, right?

So the reason why I go live especially with guests is so you can ask questions. So today it's just me, we're talking about networking building community. So ask questions I would love to ask questions. If you have a question most likely somebody else has a question as well. And so that's the reason why I do guidance comes with 2.0. I want to go through and get some shout out to Chris Good morning, Erica John and John. It's great to see you all Andrew. Congratulations man. I got the Andrew Clarkson, got the job TikTok for those of you who can't see on my screen right now.

I'm so, I'm so proud of you. I'm so, so proud of you. And everybody give everybody give Andrew some daps this morning. RJ it's great to see you as well. I'm happy Chipper Day, Chipper Atlanta. I love it. Chipper Atlanta. I love it. It's great to see you. Let's see here. Andrew been following you for a while. Your advice has been thank you so much. Andrew that means a ton. Ben Hi from Atlanta. What's great to see you Allison Tikia. Kaylin what's going on from St. Louis. I love it Mitchell. It's hey and commoners. I love it. Hey real quick. I don't know if any of y'all live in Jacksonville at all.

But I'm going to be down there in two weeks for code on the beach. And I am throwing a guidance counselor 2.0 meet up with Vaco. We have an office down in Jacksonville. And I am partnering with their tech office. And we're going to throw a meet up. We're just going to open up a tab. We're just going to hang out and talk tech and make some new friends. So if you're in Jacksonville, you're near Jacksonville. Reach out to me. I'll send you the details. But we love to hang out with you there. All right. So I want to go ahead and dive into networking.

So again, going to a conference in two weeks speaking, obviously spoke at render. Also shout out. Shout out render. ATL as well. And I think and I've talked about this already on my life. So if you've heard this, I'm sorry, but also I'm not sorry because we need to hear this time and time again. Networking is about friction or the lack of friction. So one thing that I realized. So I went down and react to Miami. And I was trying to pass around business cards and I didn't have business cards. I saw people pass around business cards and like, what did I see? I saw people, oh, thanks for your business card.

I slide it into their pocket. And then then what I did is like, hey, can I have your number? Or hey, are you on Twitter? Are you on Instagram? Are you on LinkedIn? Like what's your platform of choice? OK, that's friction. That's actually three points of friction right there. Three points of friction. You got Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. What are you on? That's three points of friction right there. And so I was like, man, it almost felt like I was trying to date again. Like how awkward it was trying to get somebody's number and be like, hey, can I have your number? What's your number? Can you plug it into my phone?

You're in a loud saying you can't hear them. It just was a mess. And so one thing that I looked into is the dot card. This is not a sponsored ad, but dot card, I'm open to it for sure. But basically, the dot card is a brilliant piece of plastic. I actually have it like you're a little bit. So the dot card is literally a card. It looks like a credit card. And it basically, you can bump it on your phone and what it does is it allows people to go straight to your platform. So this is it right here. Dot card. It's all it is.

It's got a QR code you can scan on the back. Or you can literally just bump your card. You can bump your card. Also, Christine, that's great to see you on TikTok this morning. You can bump your card. Someone's phone and all of your information comes up. So I think this is a great network. And if you plan on going to any networking events of the next few months, bring by one, it's like 20 bucks by one and use it because it is literally it is literally saves your life from awkwardness, which I hate awkwardness. So I highly recommend this. Also, nothing to that talk about all the time.

Pick the five people you want to meet and the five talks you want to go to. You don't need to go to every talk. I'm giving you permission now. You do not need to go to every single freaking talk at a conference. This may be an unpopular opinion. But again, you don't need to. You're going to get burned out and you're not going to be able to. You're not going to be able to network as long, right? So conferences is definitely. Charlie comes in. Can you get custom designs? I think you can. I think you can. I just wasn't creative. Creative enough. So the thing is about going to this is conferences, right?

But meetups, what I would do too is I'd pick 10 people at meetups in your local area to go get connected to. If you can go to the meetup page of the event and look at the guest, that's what so cool about meetup.com. It shows the guests that are going. And the reason why I would zero in on this is because a lot of people have extreme anxiety around networking with people. And for me, what I've done to help myself and my anxiety, because again, I'm an introvert, doing this live show is obviously is my way to communicate to the masses without being overwhelmed. But when I go to large net like like code on the beach, I remember I went three years ago.

We had the speaker dinner. And literally like I was I was like, I was I was frozen. I was frozen. I was like, this is too much. There's too many people. I can't do this. And so my thing is is like pick a handful of people. And then that gives you the excuse to leave. Like leave the event, go get some rest. It's okay. I think, you know, I struggle with this and kind of when I started speaking at conferences and I was like, I got to go to everything. I'm going to sit in on all the talks. I'm going to meet all the people.

I'm going to go to all the events. And I legitimately like made myself sick because I was networking so hard and talking to so many people and it wore me out so much. And so I'm giving you the permission now. If you go to a conference, pick five talks and five people that you absolutely need to meet and then let yourself off the hook. Right. If you go to a local meetup, pick around 10 people, pick around 10 people and zero in on them. And then if you meet them and you're just exhausted, move on. And now again, if you're a social person, no, that's not like me and you want to keep you want to stay and keep networking, go ahead and do it.

Again, I'm just giving you my tips and tricks. Also too, I've talked, I had a conversation this week with one of my coworkers on my team and we talked about, you know, brand building and being known in the market for somebody is for something else other than just recruiting. And what I told them is like listen, like sit back and write down some things that you're super passionate about. Right. Like are you passionate about wine? Are you passionate about hockey? Which is my two things. Right. What are you passionate about? Right. Actually, I follow a content creator on TikTok. His name is JT Barnett. He's actually a former hockey player, turn content creator.

And he actually one of his passions is fitness. So what he did is he bought a house and he actually talked about why he spent over the amount that he could spend because his house was so big allowed him to have a workout gym. But basically what he does is he hosts group workouts with people in his community. Like five to seven people every day and they rotate and it's brilliant because what he does is he ties his passion of being fit to meet other content creators. Right. And so that's my thing for those of you who are watching today, whatever you sit, think for a second.

Right. I'm going to pause for a second. Think for a second. What are you passionate about? It could be board games. It could be jeopardy. It could be Dungeons and Dragons. Right. Just finish watching Stranger Things. Oh, by the way, whoever did anybody y'all watch Stranger Things and y'all watch the end unreal and totally going to be a season five. Also, I don't want to get derailed here, but my mom also said she talked to a friend where they're going to start doing spinoffs of Stranger Things, which is absolutely brilliant. So yes, big fan of Stranger Things, but even Stranger Things, right? You could even do a meetup where you guys talk about theories and conspiracy theories and thoughts on Stranger Things, right?

But again, the big thing is around creating communities. Nobody wants to like wait on somebody to create a community, but nobody wants to create a community themselves, right? People always want to sit back and let someone else do it. You be the thing. You be the person to start the community. And again, all it has to do is something you're passionate about. All right. So we talked about building a community, talking about networking, the importance of meetups listen, depending on how you feel with COVID and again, I understand, you know, it is obviously a sensitive topic. I will tell you this, if you feel comfortable, I would start getting out and networking once a month.

It is a muscle that needs to be flexed. You know, people are like, well, I'm bad at networking. Okay, well, I will ask you how many times have you gone to a networking event over the last six months? Now again, I understand COVID's happening, right? But all that being said, like, you see what I'm getting at, right? You can't be good at something if you never do it. And so get comfortable. And again, like I said, even if it's you show up for like the first 30 minutes and meet five people and leave, that's fine, right? Like kind of ease into the whole networking thing, especially if you're not really comfortable with it.

Allison comes in here and goes at any other scaproom enthusiast in the house. I hate it. The escape room because it evolves. Critical thinking I'm bad at it. But hey, someone hit up Allison. If you guys want to talk about escape rooms, bear it, stranger things for rocked. You'll learn it's great to see you. Brandon comes in as an introvert. Also an introvert. But when I get around my people, I'm told that I don't come across that way. Conferences, tech events and other stereotypical nerd gatherings are my people. And I love that so much. And I'm kind of the same way too. I mean, I'm the same way.

When I get around like the little bit of music people that I still know and Nashville because I moved up here for music, like I get weird. But like when I'm around tech people, I'll never forget we're out of the guy moved up to Nashville with to do music. His wife is a country artist. And we were hanging out at a bar and there's a few other country artists that you probably have heard of. And I was like, I don't know these people. And I don't know what to talk about. I was like, do you do dot net? And it's like obviously like country artists.

But literally I found there's just one guy. There was one guy literally in the corner at a table with he and his wife. And he wasn't talking to anybody. And I just went to go talk to him. Low and behold, he was a CTO to start up in Nashville when we kicked it off. So again, I totally get it. Find your people. Find your tribe. Double down in your tribe. And then you're going to be obviously very, very happy for that. Any questions, comments or concerns here? Ricardo, it's great to see you. Christian's great to see you as well. I want to give some thoughts on layoffs and stuff too.

So obviously layoffs are happening right now. My two cents around layoffs is this. Start networking now. I have one engineer who is in Nashville who just ended up at Netflix. And he dms me one day and he goes, look, I'm already networking. And literally he showed me his DMs on LinkedIn. And he was already sending DMs to other people, to other companies. Just just to start networking, right? Listen, the market's kind of all tall right now. Layoffs happen. But I think you just got to get ahead of it, right? I think sending one or two DMs a day to talk to a stranger about, hey, listen, I want to do this or that.

And just try to talk tech. I think it's incredibly important right now. Again, if you start networking when you have to network, you're already too late. Brandon comes in again, plus one to be the thing. Starting a community absolutely doesn't require dozens of people at first. A handful with common interest can be perfect and the group can grow organically from there because there are always more people out there who are into doing that thing. Absolutely. So for example, one of the things, one of the networking events that I started really early on right before COVID was I started to do a lunch. But I capped it at 10 people.

So me and 10 engineers, and it was once a month at a Mexican restaurant. And because I don't do well in big settings, I just don't. I like to have like two or three people around me and to do that. So I started to do this lunch and it's, I did it for about five or six months before COVID hit in every single month that booked up. And it was just 10 people. And we just ate Mexican and we just hung out and we left. It was an hour. So again, you don't have to be creative. You can literally if you're just obsessed with like finding new spots to eat in your city, do that and like start a community around that, right?

Again, I talk about this so much. And the reason that the reason why I talk about all this networking so much in building community is because I still remember in 2011 when I moved to Nashville fresh out of college, I did not know how to do any of this. None of it. I didn't even know how to use LinkedIn. I didn't even know here's, I grew up in the restaurant industry. My dad ran a, has run restaurants at the beginning of time. That's all he's done. So all I've known is night jobs. That's all I've known. I didn't even know what a recruiter was, right?

And so the reason why I talk about the same things by like, Taylor, you've already had this talk. You're right. I've literally given this talk. I think a month ago. But the thing is, is that if I were, I want to be able to find that one person who doesn't know this, right? And so again, if I knew that I could build a community by doing X, I would have been so much further along so much quicker. So definitely do it. Going back to layoffs, please network. Reach out to me if you have any questions. Other than that, that's all I got today. Short and sweet to the point again.

Every Friday is just going to be me. And so thanks for tuning in today. I appreciate it. I appreciate you all. So next week, I'm in town two days next week before leaving to Austin. I don't know if anybody's in Austin. We should grab a margarita. Austin's got the best margaritas ever. But so next week, we have, so I have the CTO of a FinTech company on Monday. He was a previous guest a while back, but I'm bringing it back on his name is Daniel Norton. He's incredible. And then Tuesday, I have my dear friend, dear, wow, dear friend, Cam. Cam is actually a product at Dell.

And we're going to talk about the power of content. Why you should do it. He's actually starting his content journey. He just got this new product job that's a little bit more marketing center. And he wants to, you know, and he really wants to start to do content. So we're going to talk about that. So anyways, thanks again. I appreciate you all. This was a great, great episode. So many people this morning. Hope you have a wonderful Friday and wonderful weekend. If you need anything, Holler, Romero, listen, if you're in Austin next week between the 13th and the 16th, slide into my DMs, let's maybe maybe maybe maybe grab a margarita.

And that goes to anybody in Austin. If anybody's in Austin that you want to grab a margarita on me, send me a text send me a DM. And let's try to organize something. All right y'all, appreciate y'all telling you all with great one. And I'll see y'all Monday. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode. And I am very grateful because you know why there's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of episodes. And I myself rarely finish an entire episode. So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the app store.

I want this to be discoverable to others. And the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it, please like right now, unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me, Taylor at Vaco.com or at T-Dasting on all social media handles. And I hope you have a fantastic day.