Why You Should Be Yourself, and Network with Everyone
When I was finishing my Senior year at the University of New Hampshire, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in the business world . I think some of that had to do with not getting enough opportunities in a real business settings, and poor leadership. All that changed when I started working for Dyn.
Before we get going on this post, I have some very basic advice. You should always gather as many mentors as you can. There is so much wisdom out there that can open your mind to new ideas.
In the spirit of gathering mentors I’d thought I’d share a lesson from one of my mentors.
Lesson 1: Be yourself.
From Kyle York, Chief Strategy Officer at Dyn
Kyle was my first boss out of college.
Kyle single handedly, and maybe unintentionally taught me how to network. I know networking sounds like a bullshit buzzword, but your network is a huge part of your value, especially in your work life. 3 weeks into my new job with Dyn, things weren’t going great. Kyle asked me to meet with him privately.
When I first joined Dyn full time, I was so afraid of losing my job for being unprofessional, and being taken seriously. In a small company with only 15–20 employees, I was sort of viewed as Ryan the Intern even though I had graduated, and been hired full time. Because of this stigma, I was very tight, and over professional with everyone, internally and externally.
My first job at Dyn was to help get their first slew of bigger customers talking with sales reps, through any means necessary. When I did cold emails, at first, my outreach sucked.
An early email I used to send to actual prospects. I’m so happy I screenshoted this. Yuck!
I wasn’t producing for the first few weeks (as you can imagine), and I was super tight and uncomfortable with this guy I had become. When Kyle asked me to meet, I was terrified. So we grabbed a conference room one morning, he sat me down, and started the meeting with two simple words:
“Be yourself”
“I hired you because you’re fun and creative. You know the tech, you love the company. I want you to be fun and creative in everything you do,” said Kyle. “You spending way too much time trying to be someone you’re not. Be Ryan O’Hara.”
Kyle’s meeting was like letting a dog out the cage. It changed my whole perspective on business. It made me realize that cold emailing, networking, talking with strangers, tweeting, content, everything…it wasn’t a script. We were writing the rules. It was the American Frontier.
Coming out of the meeting, the internet became a land grab, where we were writing the rules.
After the meeting, from that day forward, I gradually starting doing really well. Work became fun. My lead generation campaigns brought in record numbers, allowing me to do more marketing campaigns.
Kyle also taught me another important lesson:
Lesson 2: Network with everyone.
Kyle was a road warrior for a long period of time at Dyn. He was always taking meetings with everyone. He didn’t care how small or how big you were. Because he knew that anyone can turn into somebody you want to know down the road.
For a few years at least, Kyle was everywhere. This is him at SXSW in 2011.
This mentality is actually one of the reasons that Dyn grew so quickly. We focused on small companies with a lot potential at first, and when those small companies turned into big companies, it became easier to win business from other big companies down the road.
Sure some of the contacts we made in our network would fail, and end up not amounting to much. But everybody falls, and can get back up stronger than ever.
A good example of this is a podcasting service called Odeo.
Odea was a place where podcasters could aggregate and stream their podcast.
Odeo was a small eCommerce customer using Dyn’s $30/year package. When Apple announced they were integrating podcasts into iTunes, the company scrambled to pivot.
If you aren’t familiar with where this story is going, then you probably should read up on Twitter’s origin story. The Odeo team pivoted their company into a micro blogging platform, that today is best known as Twitter. Luckily, Dyn gave them respect and the time of day, before they were Twitter.
“Helping Twitter helps us get into Linkedin. Helping Revision3, makes it easier to get into Netflix. Help and meet everyone. Everyone matters, “ Kyle used to say.
Starting as a small customer called Odeo, Twitter became one of Dyn’s biggest customers, and closest allies in building future enterprise platform features.
Kyle showed me that this lesson is very easy to execute. It’s simple.
“Take meetings with people. Help them without asking for things in return. Help the eco-system and it’ll help you back when you need it most.” -Kyle’s Actions
I didn’t quote Kyle there, because I don’t think Kyle actually ever said this quote, but he actions might as well have. Kyle’s met so many startups over the years, and has an incredible network of cool people with interesting stories.
At the end of the day, there are millions of people out there that can help you, and you probably have a way to help them back. If you be yourself, have fun, and network with everyone, the impact can immeasurable.
This post first appeared on Ryan’s branded.me.
