Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how you can build a bigger
Speaker 1: network even if you're working from home. In fact, especially
Speaker 1: if you're working from home. While working from home can
Speaker 1: sometimes be isolating. With a little strategic planning, you can
Speaker 1: realize that it doesn't need to be. Most of us
Speaker 1: know that we should be spending more time networking. We
Speaker 1: know that a robust network can help with finding jobs,
Speaker 1: landing clients, and figuring things out. Plus it's just fun
Speaker 1: to have people who are cheering for us and to
Speaker 1: have professional friends that we get to watch succeed too.
Speaker 1: But when we get busy, it is always easier not
Speaker 1: to reach out. This is especially true these days when
Speaker 1: many people are working from home and possibly juggling personal
Speaker 1: responsibilities like kids, remote learning too. It feels like there's
Speaker 1: just never enough time. But here's the thing, if we
Speaker 1: are smart about it, we can build a more robust
Speaker 1: network of people external to our organizations while working from home.
Speaker 1: In some ways, it's easier then if you're in an office.
Speaker 1: When you work in an office five days a week,
Speaker 1: you spend a lot of time with your immediate colleagues.
Speaker 1: Of course, right you go to lunch together, you grab
Speaker 1: coffee together, and that's great, but you also start to
Speaker 1: feel like your need to meet people in your industry
Speaker 1: is well met. Many offices also have pretty strong time
Speaker 1: norms that make it hard to meet eternal people during
Speaker 1: the work day. If you leave the office at four
Speaker 1: pm to grab coffee with someone else, people wonder where
Speaker 1: you're going. If you skip lunch with your usual crew
Speaker 1: to meet someone else, people wonder what's going on. It's
Speaker 1: not that you're going to get fired for this or anything,
Speaker 1: but needing to explain yourself always puts a little damper
Speaker 1: on the impulse to do these things. When you are
Speaker 1: working from home, however, you can completely escape these time
Speaker 1: norms these days. Of course, we're not really supposed to
Speaker 1: be eating and drinking maskless with people outside of our households.
Speaker 1: But if you want to meet someone to go for
Speaker 1: a walk in the middle of the day, well you can.
Speaker 1: You can have a social coffee by zoom with someone
Speaker 1: and not have the people in the next cubicle here
Speaker 1: are you. And since you are not automatically socializing as
Speaker 1: much with your colleagues, you'll feel more of a need
Speaker 1: to arrange to talk with people, and that is a
Speaker 1: good thing. It can nudge you to reach out, So
Speaker 1: do just that. My friend Molly Beck wrote a book
Speaker 1: called reach Out that advocates doing something like this every
Speaker 1: work day. Reach out to one person, send an email,
Speaker 1: or you could text or call. And this can be
Speaker 1: someone you know from the past, someone a friend recommended
Speaker 1: you meet, or just someone doing something cool in the world.
Speaker 1: The point is to build the habit. If you reach
Speaker 1: out to two hundred forty people in a work year,
Speaker 1: maybe a hundred will lead to responses, probably more, but
Speaker 1: let's say a hundred. Maybe twenty of those will become
Speaker 1: solid connections. But twenty connections a year for five years
Speaker 1: means you have a hundred people in your professional network
Speaker 1: who really feel solid about you. That would be an
Speaker 1: impressively robust network. And you can do it all even
Speaker 1: if you're working from home. So today, build in a
Speaker 1: few minutes to think about who you'd like to get
Speaker 1: in touch with. Think about who else you could get
Speaker 1: in touch with two over the next few work days.
Speaker 1: None of this needs to take much time. A few
Speaker 1: emails a week, one virtual coffee. But this investment will
Speaker 1: pay off in so many ways over the long call.
Speaker 1: And if you use working from home as a reason
Speaker 1: to reach out more broadly than to just your colleagues,
Speaker 1: your network will be stronger. Because while we all hope
Speaker 1: that everything will go well in our careers, no one's
Speaker 1: job is a certain A robust network means you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about that if things don't work out well,
Speaker 1: there are a hundred people you could call who will
Speaker 1: help you take the next step. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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