Network: Branding with Purpose
“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do — especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”
— William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways
Networking. A lot of people probably have a shiver go down their spine when they hear that word. For me, it always represented a chore that I needed to do but didn’t really want to. It can feel forced and disingenuous. To some, it is the act of interacting with someone because you want something from them. If you’re confused by what I’m talking about, you might be one of the fortunate few that never had to witness friends and strangers form a circle around someone with status as if they were praying to a deity.
I am not a naturally social person, I grew up very shy. As a child I lived in three very different countries with different cultures and languages; it took me a long time to feel comfortable enough to break out of my shell. Unfortunately, there is no trick to socializing that I’ve learned over the years. You just have to do it. Networking can be uncomfortable, especially if you haven’t done a lot of it. It helps, sometimes, to remember that other people are just as uncomfortable as you are. Or maybe they’re not, and they’re experts at this, and you can just copy whatever they’re doing. Either way, it’ll be fine.
Let’s not focus on the bad or the awkward. In this chapter, let’s think about networking from its many enjoyable angles, because it can be enjoyable. It’s not wrong to say that networking is just a formal way of making friends. Plus, the reason people do it (even when they don’t want to) is because the end result is great — i.e., there will be more people to care about you, to guide you, to mentor you, and to push you to succeed. So let’s examine how to use travel to develop your network, and how and why travel can strengthen your existing network.
Since this blog is focused on network there is no single destination point, the whole world is our network!
Destination 6
Priscilla Babb is half Chinese, one quarter Mexican, and one quarter white. Her diverse roots sparked an interest in traveling from an early age. But this story is not about that. Priscilla started a non-profit with a classmate while studying at Princeton. The non-profit, Global Compassion Project, takes American students from eleven to eighteen years old and helps them travel to China to teach English; in eleven years in operation, they’ve helped over 3,000 youths. But this story isn’t about that project either.
This story is about what happened when Priscilla quit her job. In 2017, she was working as a brand manager for S.C. Johnson in Chicago, running the Windex brand. She left without having her next job lined up; in fact, she didn’t even know what industry or field she wanted to work in. “My only goal was to join a startup with a cause that I believed in.”
But she did have a plan. Priscilla was never the type to wait until retirement to see the world; at that point, she’d already made two different trips around the globe, each over six months long. Over those trips she finally honed in on a method to not only see the world but also build skills, broaden her network, and make herself more valuable to employers.
So when she quit, she embarked on another adventure. This time, her focus wasn’t beaches and ski slopes, but offices. She went networking and learning about startups all around the globe. “Over six months, I had picked out four or five anchor conferences within four or five cities, with one or two incubators or accelerators [in each]. I mapped out my friends in these areas and just went.”
She left a lot of her time unplanned to leave room for suggestions or referrals that came through friends and people that she met on the trip. Having a loose schedule also had the added benefit of giving her time to take a break when needed. She also made sure to make time for pro bono work, which had unexpected benefits: “One of the easiest ways for me to meet people was I was doing a lot of pro bono work while abroad… If [startup companies] don’t have the ability to pay for a marketing director or creative director, I would be happy to come in and brainstorm with them and talk branding.”
Using a combination of existing connections, pro bono work, and networking at incubators and conferences, Priscilla ended up vetting over a hundred companies. She found that startups were very open to her emailing out of the blue, especially when she identified herself as coming from the U.S. and wanting to help and learn. She ended up working with dozens of companies, meeting scores of people, and traveling across six continents. At the end of this epic journey, Priscilla knew she had found the opportunity that excited her most for the next phase of her career. And that choice surprised her.
“I started at New York Fashion Week thinking I was going to go into luxury goods. [I] ended up at a biometric cyber security startup commercializing tech out of Stanford University.” In all her time at tech conferences, she got the tech bug. Her travels led to her next gig in that field, and she’s been happily working since.
Reentry did not come without its hiccups. Although Priscilla maintains that taking time off to travel is absolutely worthwhile, you have to be prepared for some questions when you get back. “Companies will ask you, ‘What have you been doing?’” Some people will like and respect that you’ve traveled, but some will be skeptical. Priscilla says that this very concern is why she focused her latest trip on “building more purpose and marketability… it doesn’t have to be a lot, it’s just a quarter turn of being a little bit more mindful as opposed to ‘I am just going to travel.’” Employers are often concerned about how long it’s been since you’ve had the structure of a job in your life, but if you’re able to show the structure you built for yourself and the skillset you worked up, you’ll be a much more appealing candidate.
Souvenirs:
● Priscilla went on a trip around the world to grow her network, exchanging her skills as a brand manager for the opportunity to pick the brains of employees in different industries.
- Sometimes, life is like a box of chocolates. Don’t know what you want? Get a sampler.
● Through her travels, Priscilla ended up finding a new job in a new industry that she loves.
- When your skills are translatable to a lot of fields, you should take the time to consider new ways to apply them in the industry that you find most exciting and promising.
● In order to facilitate reentering the workforce, Priscilla emphasized the ways in which she structured her time away and the skills she honed in the meantime.
- Although many companies value travel experience and want employees who have taken the time to figure out what they want, some may still give you a hard time for not being traditionally employed. Be prepared to articulate why your time off was as valuable, or more valuable, than traditional work experience.
● Bonus: If you want to be like Priscilla (who could blame you?), here’s her very own suggested itinerary:
- Plan ahead. Spanning whatever amount of time you can take off, pick several large startup conferences around the world. Make a travel itinerary around them.
- Reach out. Email incubators and accelerators to ask if you can network with their companies. These are fledgling businesses that often will be happy to talk to someone with any sort of relevant expertise.
- Be vocal. Tell your coworkers and friends what you’re interested in and where you’re going. Announce what you’re looking for on social media. Ask for recommendations on whom to meet and where.
- Use what you have. Offer up your own skills, whether for a short consultation or a longer period, in exchange for being able to speak to and shadow people at the company. Exchange knowledge and network while you do it.
If you’d like this story and would like to read more, you can order a copy of my book on Amazon — here is the link. If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email thetravelersedgebook@gmail.com or connect with me on Instagram: @thestandbyguy. I would love to hear your feedback so please let me know what you think!
