The only thing you need to do this summer
Every other profile looks like a copy of another until mine showed up. You skim through my profile across platforms, and make your way over to the experience section, and start thinking about talking to me. And you don’t stop.
You are seconds away from sending a connection request. You’d like to ‘collaborate,’ but you don’t know where to begin. You absorb the internet during the day and make plans of building your portfolio at night. You are secretly craving for a great, insightful conversation. All this for an engaging ‘collaborative’ moment that makes you go — wow!
You really like Marketing, except for the phase that lacks creativity, which is the worst. No, wait — Not being able to market creatively is the worst! Unless there’s storytelling involved in Marketing, in which case it’s the best.
Pixar. Apple. Coca-Cola. Ogilvy. Nike. Copywriting books. Marketing podcasts. Advertising Campaigns. Binge-worthy series — MadMen.
Initially, you begin by listening to some age-old inspirational talks. Then move on to reading the same top ten recommended blogs as per your fellow peers. But wait. One day you wake up and find an interesting podcast. You begin to explore real gems. Gems that many are not aware of. The gems that’ll fuel your secret recipe for success.
Then you even decide to stay up late scrolling through social media making relevant hashtagged jokes. Rather gravitate towards creating forced memes about the one thing that is trending. How? You may ask. Because everyone has mutually yet independently decided to make it the event that everyone together can joke about — today.
You love to get involved in conversations. Even when your opinion is not directly asked for. Nevertheless, you tend to send withering @ messages to the likes of GaryVee. Of course, those comments are not meant for the brand or the author of the post. But for your community, who might be a little not interested and yet reply to your savage wit. All in the name of networking.
You are networking. So networking. Perhaps, all the time.
Don’t take this too hard. Even if you are busy networking, after all, we are all unconsciously networking. At best, we’re recovering from close, in-person interactions. Every single day provides hundreds of opportunities for us to either bore the crap out of the people with whom we go live, work online, and chat over a video call or get their ever disruptive attention wanting more. And as you know the internet, is a level playing field for everyone. So, here you have the liberty to interact with thousands of people at once.
A few years ago, I began preparing for a job that involved thinking. More like strategic thinking. The kind that’ll make me listen to a ton of creative ideas and then recreate something amazing from my own grey cells.
It is quite probable that I’ve thought of more creative ideas than a Creative Strategist would have forgotten in a day. I have written, re-written, brainstormed, dissected at least close to a bit of not knowing where to start first. of course, the vast majority would say — ‘How do you make a living coming up with ideas and just thinking in general.’ I’d often wish to redirect these humans for a scheduled reckoning by a c-suite who’ve spent decades doing just that. But that’s a story for some other day.
Nonetheless, this technique of always looking out for — ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ taught me to differentiate in a spur of minutes whether the idea was worth being the summer romance or something more than that.
The people who are good marketers tell good stories. They are also inquisitive: willing to collaborate to expand their virtual status and intellectual range. Most importantly, interesting marketers are also strangely the best listeners. They know when to ask questions. This is exactly the group of people I’d like to connect with. Whose content I would subscribe to, whose expertise I would seek out, and whose friendship I would cherish.
In other words, those people are the opposite of boring. And their personalities reek of creativity.
So, let’s drive through the ‘Highway to Hell-lot-of-fun’ through collaboration. And this summer — Network for its due worth.
If you are ready to collaborate — Shoot a DM now.
