How To Create Opportunities Through Networking

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TRANSCRIPT:

DOUG: Monique’s been a really popular guest on the podcast, and it’s great to have you back, but this time with another credit to your name, author. Congratulations.

MONIQUE: Thank you, Doug. So good to be here. And yeah, I never thought author would be anywhere near my name for sure.

DOUG: Yeah. And now you’re redefining networking. And the idea is how to lead with your unique value, which is the title. So, what is your new definition of networking?

MONIQUE: It’s really about earning your keep. And so how the concept came up is that I was at Takeda Pharmaceuticals running comms for multiple business units, a C-suite member, and I was adjuncting at the time. So, this was during the end of the Covid days, and Boston University had asked if I wanted to go full-time. So, I figured, yeah, maybe I’ll explore it. To become a full-time press professor really takes ten months of a lot of interviews. Ten letters of recommendation. I tease that it’s actually harder to become a professor than probably a president. So, they put me through a lot. And so, at the end of that interview, I ended up getting an offer. And I thought to myself, I definitely do not want to leave corporate. I love the work that I do for biopharma companies and communications. So, the College of Communications dean was a former editor-in-chief of Scientific American. So, she said, by all means, please open a consultancy. Keep one foot in the door, both feet. You know, you should be able to do both, and it’ll help your students, but also it will help your consulting as well to have your ear to the ground of Gen Z and kind of what’s coming up in the profession.

DOUG: In the book, you wrote about the large percentage of jobs that are found through networking, I think, was it 80% you were saying? And I was trying to figure out in my own scenario. I guess if I count starting my own business, then I networked with myself, right? I’m spot on at 80%. Networking is done differently now. You talked about giving almost more important than the idea of getting when you’re working.

MONIQUE: Absolutely. So, during that time when I ended up opening my consultancy, this is where the concept came from. Because for me, I’d always heard networking and was like, oh God, it’s a huge, you know, room of strangers, and you need to meet people. And at the end of that, you know, session, you don’t really remember who you even talked to. And so, for me, opening a business, I had no clue what I was doing. I spoke to a couple of former co-workers of mine from the agency side, and they kind of gave me all the great tips and tools that I needed. And it’s been three and a half years, and I’m really just working through my network. And so, as my friend Adam Ritchie asked me if I could endorse his book invention and PR, I said, yeah, but I’m onto something. I’m not an author, you know. I’m not trying to, you know, go down another path. I don’t need a third career, but there’s something here about how easy it is to get opportunities when you “earn your keep”. You invest in the relationships throughout, and you don’t really expect anything in return. So, I spoke to his editor at Rutledge, and she loved the concept because she’s an introvert. The U.S. Department of Labor is estimating 80% of jobs are found through connections. So, no longer can we just submit our resume and cover letter and hope that the majority of the time someone will even receive it, let alone call us back. And so, I see this in terms of Boston University. I was, you know, guest speaking, adjuncting, earned my keep for about 6 or 7 years before that full-time position. And the same with consulting. Meredith at Rutledge loved it, but as an introvert, she felt, I don’t know, you’re a comms person. You’re great at this. What about folks who aren’t great at networking? And so, the whole point of this book is to show that anyone, regardless of whether you’re introverted, extroverted, shy, or not, can do better in terms of investing time and energy in their relationships.

DOUG: Yeah. And you have a three-step process for that. Step one is identifying your value. So, how do you go about doing this? And can people really be skilled at sort of stepping outside themselves to look at themselves, to really see what the value that they have that they can share?

MONIQUE: I talked to a lot of comms people and, in fact, did a workshop recently with Ticket to Biotech, which is the biopharma comms industry folks. And it’s funny because we’re really good at putting other brands and companies and spokespeople forth, but sometimes we don’t always communicate our own value very well as a comms person. And so, the first step is really identifying that value and looking at it as skill sets. So, where is your sweet spot? So, in com, especially now so many areas of specialty. Are you in media relations? Are you digital, crisis? Where really do you light up, and where are your skills? Once we do that, it’s going to be a lot easier to do the second step, which is finding the right audience. So, I have a 22-plus-year career in biopharma comms. That’s really where my heart is. It doesn’t mean that I can’t do comms, perhaps for other areas, but my sweet spot and the value that companies get is really from the biopharma industry. So, that’s the second step for that audience.

DOUG: So, if I may, for you, it was pretty well defined. Obviously, you’ve been a super high achiever throughout your career, whether it was even as an athlete running, which often can be a positive indicator of success later on. Understanding the value put into something directly relates to the value you get out of it. But you know, okay, let’s say something. They’ve worked. I understand how you were able to do it, but for someone else, how do they find their audience, especially if they’re just starting out? A lot of people in their 20s, you know, and even older, obviously, are not certain about what they want to do, what their niche is. It can be found at a later date. I mean, I didn’t start doing the work I was doing until I’d already been in the business world for 3 or 4 years, and then I ended up getting in that, which is not uncommon. So, go about finding what your audience is, especially if you’re early in your career or if you’re later mid-career, but let’s start with early career, then separately, we’ll take on later in your career.

MONIQUE: Yeah. I mean, I look back at my career, I started in media relations, frankly, because I took the class that I teach at BU Media Strategy, and loved it, I loved pitching, I loved getting on the phone. And it was funny because I started to realize when I was at this investor relations firm, pitching on their media team. People say, well, people usually don’t like to be in the media because of the rejection. Well, I can take rejection. I’m from, you know, thick skin, New Jersey. I’m fine with a no. So, for me, I figured if that’s a sweet spot and part of it is you won’t know the value until you really get into a company and kind of figure it out. So, for them, I thought just media relations, that’s what I learned. That’s what I’m doing. But the more I started to hear, I almost had this understanding of, ah, do what everyone else thinks is hard. So, I started to gravitate towards new business pitching. You know, working with clients who were deemed difficult. All of that was because, for me, it was an exciting challenge for others. They looked at it as, you know, whatever floats your boat, go ahead and do it. And this was way before I even understood that health care comes was, you know, where my passions lie. So, your audience and your value will change over time. And so, I always encourage my students to just get in somewhere. You know, as long as it aligns with your personal values and your passion. Try it out. And it’s in the doing that you start to learn and listen for, aha! What might be something very valuable, or what I call the white space on a team, that might be helpful for them.

DOUG: The idea that you’ve identified it, now you’ve got your audience figured out. What are some practical tips for communicating it? Based on what I’m hearing and what I’ve read in the book? It’s not like, hey, here I am, aren’t I great? Please promote me. It’s like, what are the ways that you can communicate your value?

MONIQUE: Absolutely. So, step three is absolutely that communicating your value in many different ways. I know a lot of comms people who, again, we will ghostwrite and post on LinkedIn for our executives, but we don’t like to do it ourselves for that reason, Doug. Oh, I don’t want to self-promote. I look at it as we are all in the business of storytelling and narratives. And so, sharing not, you know, telling, but showing us the work that you do is going to be helpful for others to find you. So, case in point, when I was at Takeda, I ran the gamut. It was executive comms, product comms, crisis, you name it. And so, when I started to consult, I noticed that it was internal comms and employee engagement that a lot of companies needed some fractional help with. So, I started to play up stories about town halls and some of the work I did there to help executives be storytellers, not just, you know, present about numbers on a slide in the quarterly performance. So, the more that I told stories, the more it attracted other companies to say, oh, wait a minute, I knew you from your product comp days on the agency side, I didn’t realize you do exec comms or employee comms. Can you help my group? And so, I started to have for the last three years of influx of companies, very blessed for that, that needed help. And they all said, I saw this on LinkedIn. Can you do this? And any time I felt the guy was at capacity, I would pull in a coworker of mine, a former coworker who consulted. So that’s another way to show your value: if a client comes to me, and if it’s not me doing the work, I have plenty of very skilled folks who can help you as well. So, it’s LinkedIn. It’s the storytelling. I do mention you, Doug, and D S Simon Media in a chapter of the book called storytelling because video certainly now is going to continue to increase in value. So, again, it goes back to that showing and not telling in different mediums and forms.

DOUG: Yeah, especially. And thank you for that. I appreciate being in the book. There is one important thing about networking. Some people are fortunate enough to sort of be born into a network. Maybe all their friends are doing this, and their families, and all that, and create opportunities. But what are some opportunities to sort of create your own who you knows? How do you go about doing that?

MONIQUE: So, I think back to my own career, um, you know, again, in South Jersey. My mother is from Iran, a state worker. My father is, um, Black American from Trenton, IT guy, but also mister new Jersey. So, I was very popular with the boys growing up. Not because of me, because they all wanted to get, you know, wrestling and work out tips for my father. So, I certainly, for me, didn’t know how to navigate the corporate world because, you know, my parents really didn’t come from, you know, comms or marketing background, anything like that. And so it was really in college that I started to look at, okay, guest speakers, um, for other professionals, how do I just start talking to people who already said that they wanted to help because they were in the classroom. So, I figured that was low-hanging fruit. They’re here to help, you know, let me see if they might be able to grab a coffee. This was pre-LinkedIn days. And I just you know the more I talked to people and really appreciated their time, I started to think, okay, how can I potentially support them? And so, if they needed a hire, I remember a broader communications tech company. I didn’t want to go into tech, but they were looking for an intern. And I said, look, you know, you gave me half an hour of your time. Let me bring some really qualified, awesome students who might want to intern for you. So, I even noticed that this notion of, you don’t need to start with knowing people. You just have to start, as I say, earning your keep and adding value. And I really think it comes from my upbringing of feeling like no one’s really going to help me unless I really put myself out there, but it’s less about how I need a job, and it’s more about what can I do for you? So, I still I was just talking to my husband about this. I always have coffee meetings, lunch meetings. I’m always out getting to talk to people. And the only agenda item I really have is to listen, to see where there might be pain points or challenges that I can play connector for them to help them or figure out another way that I can add value. It’s a great position to be in, and it doesn’t feel scary or uncomfortable because I’m all about contributing to someone else, not necessarily asking for something. But let me tell you, right? If and when I need something, it feels much better going to someone that I know I earned my keep with for sure.

DOUG: And you’ve also established that credibility that it wasn’t just a one-way take, take, take relationship. One of the things I’d like to get is some advice for younger people. I used to have the theory that as a manager, you know, one f-up, for lack of a better phrase, with employee communication wipes out about six months of goodwill that you’ve built up. So, you really have to be careful about avoiding that, but for employees, what are some of the things that they do that can sort of get in the way, maybe block opportunities they have? Are there any tips on things to avoid?

MONIQUE: Yeah, I think, unfortunately, now with hybrid and virtual work. It’s really hard and you have to be intentional about building relationships. You know, we all had the water coolers and the opportunity to chit-chat in the elevator. A lot of the younger folks and, you know, seasoned people who are starting new jobs, it’s really hard to build that. And so, I always say be proactive as best as you can. You know, the culture of the office really helps, but if it’s a culture that’s warm and open and people want to connect on a personal level, take advantage of that. If you have a day on Wednesdays when people go in the office, even if you can do your job remotely, consider that I can do this on a computer, but being in that office is going to help me to build trust, to your point, Doug. I actually was on the board of the Working Environment Hybrid Environment Board for Takeda during Covid, and we did a lot of research and found about 65% of people feel building trust is really hard to do in a hybrid environment, and we know that trust is one of the elements where people are selected for opportunities and networking. So, building that is going to be really helpful for an employee, even if you feel like you might not need it immediately.

DOUG: Yeah. And we had switched, which we’ve been very flexible because our business was doing so well and grown while people were fully able to work from home. And it was sort of split in two. The content team that’s working on the live production, which has to be in the control room and in the studio, was infrequently. Others weren’t coming in, and we switched this past September because I noticed some of the newer people on the team weren’t progressing as rapidly as they had pre-COVID. So, now we do a two-day a week that they’re in, and it’s been helpful. And I think there’s some of that sort of soft tissue stuff that is really hard to replicate because guess what? They’re not going to jump on a Zoom with you every 15 minutes when they have a question, but they can walk by your office door when it’s open. Any final thoughts to leave the audience with? Besides, you need to check out this book, Redefining Networking: How to Lead with Your Unique Value⁠ from Everywhere. If you need to skip over page 60 so you don’t have to deal with me, I’m fine with that. Just get the book.

Page 60 is the best part, and it really is. And again, I mentioned there are a couple of what do they call that eggs in there. Like I mentioned, a lot of people who probably don’t know they’re in the book. And that, for me, was out of respect. And again, I feel that there are so many great connections, people like you who really are all about, you know, trying to break those barriers, build those bonds and connections with people organically. And so, if you’re not someone for whom networking is natural, then please check out this book, https://www.redefiningnetworkingbook.com. And if you feel I also talk to a lot of people who are like, hey, I’m the best at networking. I guarantee there’s going to be one story or one new tip or insight or stat in the book that’s going to be helpful. And the best thing is, it’s not just profiling a lot of comms people. I look at many different industries. We look at hospitality, and I’m looking at science. My sister, who hates networking, is in the book. She works for Jazz Pharma as a researcher. I have a lot of people that I showcase to intentionally show that wherever you are, where you come from, what your tenure is, doesn’t matter. Everyone can do better at earning their keep with the relationships they have in their life. And when you do that and put the work in networking, it definitely will come back to you in some way.

DOUG: Well, it’s been great to network with you during this podcast, and I know that you gave more than you received from it, keeping true to the book. Thanks so much for spending time with us.

MONIQUE: Thanks, Doug. It was a pleasure.