This email was sent years ago and it just came full circle.
As I documented in Making the Jump, after nearly a decade in human services & non-profit, I was stuck & frustrated as I tried to transition career fields and pursue a new direction. My mentor at the time sent this email to Larry, an Executive-in-Residence with a local early stage tech incubator.
Though he wasn’t quite sure what he could offer or what benefit the meeting would be for me, Larry agreed to meet with me and then introduced me via email to a few others, including Chris from a local digital consulting firm. A 30 minute coffee meeting turned into a two-hour tour de force on my resume, how I present, life philosophies, and dozens of other topics.
The other meetings were helpful as well, leading to potential leads, more helpful hints, invites to events, and of course, I learned about at least a dozen new coffee shops around town.
As you can see, these and other efforts (like starting the Pittsburgh Non-Profit User Group) led to me landing the job, things went great there, and I got the next job, and things are still going strong.
So today, I walk into a new office building, preparing to deliver a strategy workshop for a new client I recently sourced and signed (my first personal sales win!). As I’m getting ready, in walks Larry. I was not that familiar with tech incubators during my job search and with them moving locations, I had no idea my new client was the same shop.
After taking a second to figure it out – I was really blown away by the moment. Larry didn’t remember me or our meeting, but I shared with him how the courtesy of his time and introductions played such a big role in me being where I am today.
This just shows the power of networking to open doors and shrink worlds. Also, be kind to people, you never know when the kid you lent a hand will be in charge of designing a solution for your company!