ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

Networking

Professional Branding

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As I have worked with college students and young professionals I find myself increasingly talking with them about professional branding. There are plenty of article online regarding Millennials and their penchant to #overshare but, rather than focus on the negative, I try to focus on the positive aspects of professional branding.

  • LinkedIn – I was one of the first 100,000 members to join LinkedIn (#87,019 to be exact) and was found by a recruiter at HCA through the service. Having a complete profile that is regularly updated is a must for all professionals.
  • Twitter – I was fortunate to grab @ZachEvans long before I ever started to use the service and have developed some great professional relationships solely based on a re-tweet or a mention of another user. I do not have a separate account for my personal and professional lives so I carefully monitor what goes up on my feed.
  • Facebook – I closely monitor what goes on my Facebook profile just like I do with Twitter. While not overly professionally-focused, users that think their employers (or potential employers) will not do basic online research on their profiles had better be ware.
  • Personal Web Site – I did not grab the ZachEvans.com domain name as quickly as I would have liked to (hence my personal web site being www.ZachEvans.org) but my site has been a positive addition to my professional brand. Not only does it provide me with a creative outlet for my writing, but also serves as an online portfolio of the work that I have done in my career.
  • Awards – I always recommend that, if someone is kind enough to nominate you for an award, you had better give your best to try to win it. Being named one of the Nashville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2014 raised my professional profile and has provided me with a platform to rapidly to grow my professional network.
  • Conferences – I certainly recommend that all professional attend appropriate conferences–they are a great place to network–but I also recommend that, as you grow in your career, you make yourself available as a speaker or panel member at conferences. Not only will this provide great professional exposure, but it will also allow you to polish your presentation and public speaking skills.
  • Professional Organizations – Membership in a professional organizations should be more than just a line on your resume. Involvement, volunteering for committee assignments, and generally giving back to the organization will raise your profile in your industry and provide you new connections.

I always end my conversations with the thought that it is never too early to start building your professional brand and you must guard it jealously throughout your career.

Valuing My Network

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As I have progressed in my career and taken on ever-increasing amounts of responsibility, my professional network has changed. I have moved from a net-taker to what should be a net-giver. Put another way, I am being sought out more frequently to help others where once I was the one doing most of the outreach. It is not that I have stopped doing outreach–quite the contrary–it is that I am being consulted more than I am asking for consultation.

During this transition, I have found myself wanting to set some ground-rules for how I will react to these requests for help. I feel a great sense of the debt I owe to my network for all of the assistance they have provided me throughout the years. When I moved to Nashville to attend Lipscomb, I knew almost no one and needed to quickly develop a network of contacts that could help launch my career. Thankfully, I was successful.

So far, I have developed three rules that I am committing to live by when it comes to my network and how I will value it:

  1. I will value my network by returning all phone calls within one business day.
  2. I will respect my network’s time by not rescheduling meetings unless absolutely necessary.
  3. I will honor my network by giving constructive feedback in a prompt and courteous manner.

I am pledging to value my network with my time by making myself available and by providing meaningful feedback to those within it. I will, through each individual interaction, give back bit by bit to honor those that have invested so heavily in me.

Being the Newbie

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I have given several lectures at Lipscomb regarding professional networking. Back in the late 1990s I became a huge advocate of networking after I saw the benefits when it helped me land a full-time internship while I was staring a rapidly-approaching wedding date in the face.

I did not know many people in Nashville but I had a college professor that took an interest in me (thanks Randy) and made the first few introductions for me. With this being pre-LinkedIn I kept track of my phone calls and meetings on a set of note cards that eventually became a rudimentary online tracking tool that I programmed myself. One meeting led to another and I soon found myself in a salaried position with LBMC Technologies.

How was able to swing so many meetings with some very high-powered individuals in the Nashville business community? It was simple: I acknowledge that I was just a dumb college kid that did not know much and that needed to borrow some wisdom from individuals that were much wiser than me. I was not being flip about this, I was serious and it opened up a lot of doors for me.

You absolutely cannot lean on that logic for long but it is true that people do not take advantage of being the newbie on the team enough. It is OK to admit that you do not know everything and that you may need some help for a bit. You need to transition to a productive employee quickly but there is a honeymoon period…and you should not be afraid to take advantage of it!

Image source: Atwater Village Newbie