Unexpected Networking
You may not believe it just by looking at me (I’m all of 5’4” and scrawny) but I grew up playing basketball. In fact, I earned a scholarship to play in college. The sport provided so many learning moments and opportunities in my life, but never would I have expected it to help me land my dream career.
This past year, I had a job shift. I found myself in a transition period, and I decided that there was no better time than right now to pursue writing and illustrating. It’s been a childhood dream of mine and I always let other “real” jobs get in the way of pursuing it.
I had been compiling my book for a month or so when I got a message from one of my teammates I played with in college. Unbeknownst to her that I was on this new path of illustrating, she said, "I’m writing a children’s book right now and I was wondering if you would illustrate it.”
Mind you, we had kept up a little bit with each other on social media, but we hadn’t spoken in about eight years.
I caught her up on my writing and illustrating journey and quickly agreed to draw the pictures for her book. She and I continued to pursue our own research on publishing options.
Flash forward a couple of months when she had completed the manuscript and decided to take a chance and pitch her idea to a publisher. The publisher loved the idea, and in that conversation my friend mentioned me, and that lead to me becoming an independent contractor for the publishing company. I went from committing to my friend’s book to taking a position as an illustrator for a publishing company! Oh, and do you know how my friend decided to call that publishing company? One of our former basketball coaches got published by that company.
Connections I had made a decade ago were coming back around full circle to help jumpstart my dream career. And I’m sure you’ve heard of other deals getting struck on an airplane, or at a wedding, or some other unconventional place. The point is, you never know when someone you meet will come back in your life and change it significantly. The person you talked to in the morning coffee line might just be your next big deal.
And networking doesn’t have to be boring. It shouldn’t be. Everywhere you go is an opportunity to make connections, and there are too many activities based around hobbies and things we enjoy for us not to take advantage of the like-minded people they attract. Part of a book club? How about a Tuesday night kickball league? Those are built-in networks that already know you and want to support you. They’re also ways to generate new relationships. I’ve also found that striking up random conversations can often lead to… well, just that… a lead. No matter where I am.
At The Root, not only is coworking with different people in different industries with different ways to think a great way to get out of your networking comfort zone — we curate various events to create those types of collisions. Who says you can’t make a business connection in a yoga class, or at a classical music concert, or a zine workshop? Put yourself out there doing things that you enjoy and you might be surprised at the return.