Episode 86: The Number One Way to Network and Own Your Career with Andy Storch
Are you the type of person who shies away from networking? Do you think about networking internally with senior leadership so you can learn what they do and how to get to their level?
Or perhaps you’ve thought about networking with someone in the same role at a different organization to share best practices, but you automatically clam up when it comes to making that first connection?
If so, tune today's episode is for you. Today we have an amazing guest that will help you improve and grow in the new year.
Andy Storch is an author, speaker, consultant, coach, and connector as well as the host of two podcasts including The Talent Development Hot Seat and Own Your Career Own Your Life Show.
Andy is also the founder and host of the Talent Development Think Tank conference and community.
Andy is passionate about helping people fulfill their true potential and his book, Own Your Career Own Your Life, is designed to help people stop drifting and take control of their futures.
Most importantly, Andy is a husband, father and friend who is on a mission to get the absolute most out of life and inspire others to do the same.
Grab your notebook, this one has some juicy nuggets! Enjoy.
Show Links:
Connect with Andy Storch:
Website: andystorch.com
Email: andy@andystorch.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andystorch/
Instagram: @andy_storch
Twitter: @andystorch
Connect with Erin Diehl:
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
“I love this podcast and I love Erin!!”
If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing this podcast! This helps Erin support more people – just like you – move toward the leader you want to be. Click here, click listen on Apple Podcasts, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with 5 stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let Erin know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the podcast. That way you won’t miss any juicy episodes! Thanks in advance, improve it! Fam :)
Episode 86 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Improve it! Fam it is Erin and, oh my gosh. I am so excited for today's show. Let me ask you this. Are you the type of person who shies away from networking? Do you think about, I should probably reach out to this person or I wanna get to know this person who's in a senior role so I can know what they do and how I can get to that position. Or I should know this person who is in my same role at a different organization, so we can share best practices, but you clam up when it comes to reaching out, getting to know someone and creating and cultivating that relationship. If so, tune today's episode is for you. I have my new friend, Andy Storch on the show and he's just seriously a fantastic human being. I've gotten to know him over the past couple weeks.
Erin (00:53):
I was on his show. He's here on the improve it! Pod and he is just improving it left. And right. So let me tell you a little bit about Andy. He is a talent of a connector, an author, a speaker, a consultant, a facilitator and friend. And he specializes in helping clients turn strategy into action and help people do the best work of their lives. He's the founder and the host of several things. He is the founder of own, your career, own your, the book he wrote this book. Okay. It's fantastic. It was talked about on this show from a previous guest. So check it out. We're gonna link to all this in the show notes. He's the founder of the talent development think tank, membership, community, the talent development, think tank conference, the talent development, hot seat podcast, the own, your career own your podcast.
Erin (01:43):
And not only is he the talent development consultant, speaker connector and facilitator that I mentioned, he is a multiplier certified facilitator, a speaker, and a regular content creator. I consume his content on the reg love hearing from him on LinkedIn, Instagram, all the things, such a great guy to know, and such a great guy for us to learn from today when it comes to networking and owning your career. So you're gonna hear him talk about so many things in this show, what his writing process looks like. I'm always fascinated with this. You're gonna hear some of the habits that he, it talks about when it comes to owning your career, owning your life. So a sneak peek into the book, spoiler alert. It's a really good one. And he's also gonna talk about networking very specifically, how vital it is to your career, how to network early in your career versus later in your career, how to build your network, how to refine and get used to an elevator pitch.
Erin (02:51):
And we talk about an elevator pitch. Some of the connotations behind that in the show, I throw a little improv at Andy in this show. He told me to challenge him. So I did. So you're gonna hear him improvising a couple times, and we talk about why you should build the relationship first, because you don't know what can come later. It is so impactful. So if you're somebody who wants to refine your net working power skill, Andy is the guy to listen to today. We also have a networking power skill workshop that we teach here at improve. It. It is an hour and a half on zoom. It's two hours in person. We have been doing this workshop for years and it uses a lot of the fundamentals that we talk, talk about in today's show. So if you're ever interested in that for your team, please reach out to us, add improve it.
Erin (03:46):
You can find our email info@learntoimproveit.com In the show notes. I enough about us. Let's get back to Andy and let's hear the number one way to network and own your career with the one only Andy Storch. Are you a leader or change maker inside of your business organization or corporation? Are you looking for new, innovative ways to drive morale through the roof? Are you looking for fun and exciting icebreakers team building exercises and activities that will foster your team growth, friendships, loyalty, and completely transform your organization from the inside out. Have you been searching for a fun and unique way to create change instead of the same old, dry, boring leadership books and nice breakers that aren't actually working? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business improv, edutainer and failfluencer and professional Zoombie who is ready to help you improve it. My mission in life is to help you develop teams and leaders through play improv and experiential learning. And this podcast, we will deep dive into professional development team building effective communication, networking, presentation, skills, leadership training, how to think more quickly on your feet and everything in between. We have helped everyone from fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop shops transform their business, their leadership, and their people through play. So grab your chicken hat. We are about to have some fun, welcome to improve it! The podcast.
Erin (05:36):
Oh my goodness. Welcome to the podcast, Andy. I'm so happy to have you on the improve it pod. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.
Andy (05:46):
Thank you, Erin. I'm so excited to be here. You know, amazing that you and I connected just recently had a great conversation. I don't know, like a week ago, and it's one of those things where you just know we need to be friends. We're gonna hang out. We're gonna talk more. And we also have the potential to give so much value and help so many other people. So I'm so glad we're doing this today.
Erin (06:04):
Me too. And I'm so I know our audience already knows who you are. We were talking before we hit record. And I told one of my team members, I said, I'm talking to Andy today. And she's like, he's everywhere you are everywhere. And I know that this community needs you. I know we need your voice. We need your ideas. And we've actually already talked about you on the improve it! Podcast. We talked, Ooh, I would say behind your airwaves, not behind your back, but in a loving way. Cuz we had Ricklyn woods on the show and oh, love Ricklyn. I asked her who was her favorite author? And she said, you and her favorite book that she is she's she read in 2021. So we'll get to that in just a minute. Wow. So you've been talked about before, but you're here now, which we're so excited.
Andy (06:47):
I'm honored and I'm so glad it wasn't like you didn't do a special episode of like top people to avoid in 20, 22 or something like that.
Erin (06:55):
No we're like give us more Andy more Andy please. Okay. So what is one fun fact about you that we couldn't find from your bio, your books, your LinkedIn profile, all the things what's just a fun fact about Andy.
Andy (07:10):
Well, I'll give you a couple one is, I dunno if this is that fun, but you know, in addition to all the things I under on career and in the professional space, I'm very into health and fitness and I'm always investigating, learning things in that space and wrestling metaphorically with my kids to try to get them to eat vegetables. And despite how passionate I am about that space, they still won't eat their vegetables. And then the second thing that starting to become a lot more public is that this year I got really deep and interested in web three blockchain technology and especially non fungible tokens or NFTs and so deep that I've invested a significant amount of money and a lot of time. And I have now also started a third podcast called my NFT journey to share my journey and educate others.
Andy (08:04):
And hopefully I won't spend too much time on it, but it has to become a fascination of mine because I really believe this is where we're going as an economy, as a society. And I wanna help other people like figure out what's going on. Also, you know, to kind of tie things into my book. You know, the second part of my book is all about preparing for the future. And I talk a lot about the inve investing in continuous learning. I think that it's important that we're always paying attention to what's going on in the economy and the working world, especially in our particular industry or space and give things a little bit of time to investigate and see like, is this something I wanna pay more attention to so I can be ready? And this is something that I'm paying a lot of attention to because it's not just like, oh, this is a cool thing to invest in. Like many, many, many jobs are being created. Companies are being created. My best friend just took a job in this space. This is the future of everything. And so it's something I'm really excited and passionate about. And so that's, I guess I'll bring that in as my, one of my fun facts. That
Erin (09:04):
Is so cool. Sweet. This is your third podcast, Andy. I have so many questions from this question. Okay, wait, this is your third podcast, so, okay. I was on you, your podcast own your career own your life, right?
Andy (09:17):
That's right. So I have the own, your career podcast, which has had many incarnations. It was originally the entrepreneur hot seat. And then it became the Andy Storch show, which is more personal development. And then when I published my book a year ago, I changed it to the own, your career show, which is what it is today. I also have the talent development in hot seat, right. Which is a podcast for talent development professionals, all about developing talent in the working world. And then I recently launched my NFT journey, which is all about crypto metaverse NFTs because I'm so fascinated with the space
Erin (09:49):
That is, okay, how, this is a question I did not anticipate how many podcasts. So we are you recording. This is fascinating to me right now.
Andy (10:00):
Well it depends on week to week right now I'm releasing about five a week. But you know, I might record 10 in a one week and two in another week. I think this week I'm only recording maybe two or three. The nice thing about the NFT pods cast is that most of the episodes are, are solo. So, and they're only about 10 minutes each they're, they're very cons easily consumable. And so I can rip one off whenever I have an idea and I have a li a long list of ideas. If I have 15 minutes free, like, oh, let me record a quick podcast. And I can knock that out. The interview stuff I'm scheduling, you know, still schedule a lot more. I tend to try to do most of them on Tuesdays. So I block, you know, time to do a lot of those.
Andy (10:43):
And I'm also starting to you and I are recording this in December. I don't know when this will come out, but I'm starting to really reevaluate where I'm going with my business and my podcast for 2022, which I think is always a healthy habit at the end of every year. And I'm kind of cutting off in interviews for a while for my own year career podcast. So you were one of the last new guests that I've I've interviewed. And then I'm gonna be probably focusing on a little bit more solo content and leveraging a lot of the content I already have as we go into 2022,
Erin (11:12):
Stop, keep going. I feel honored. This is amazing.
Andy (11:15):
<Laugh> okay. But I wanted, but I wanted to finish the year with some really, really fascinating and talented guests, which is why you were one of the last guests that I had
Erin (11:23):
Again, stop, keep going. Oh my God, Andy, I am, I am, my cheeks are pink. My cheeks are pink. Thank you. And honestly, this is so cool. And I'm so happy to have you on the show here on a Tuesday. So we're doing this, we're recording this on a Tuesday, which is exciting. And let me
Andy (11:37):
If I can interrupt, I I'll also add to that as a compliment to the talent development, hot seat podcast. I also run a membership community called the talent development think tank. And we also do a a live call on zoom and there every Wednesday. So I'm, I'm running those as well, but I also bring in a lot of guest speakers to that, and it's almost like a podcast interview, but it's more of a Q and a with the community. And so if you have anybody listening who works in learning and development talent development, that they wanna, they might be interested in joining that. But I, you know, the key theme here is, and you, and I talked a little bit about this on my show really leaning into your strengths and figuring out what you're good at, what you love doing. And for me, one of those things is connecting with people, talking to people, sharing information, educating inspiring and that's why I do so many of these podcast interviews and group sessions and all that sort of stuff.
Erin (12:24):
Do, do I have listeners and talent development? I, and you're in the right place. Okay. Improve it, fam run to the talent development podcast, the talent development think tank. So cool. And I mean, you really do add so much value to people. And I know we have so much to talk about today. Your book has already transformed lives, cuz we've, we've had guests talk about it. So let me ask you just a really another fun question. You host these podcasts, right? What is your favorite podcast to listen to, or to binge
Andy (12:59):
My favorite podcast to listen to or binge? Well, I listen to quite a few podcasts. And so sometimes it's hard to pick just one. I mean, I love your show. I'm a big fan. But I would say you and I were talking right before we started recording a, I mentioned Gary Vanerchuck Gary V he's someone that I look up to and learn a lot from. And he has a show called the Gary V audio experience. They put out content almost every single day. And I listen to almost all of them. So probably his podcast, more than any others I listen to, but there's quite a few others in my rotation, I would say,
Erin (13:35):
Okay, this is so cool. I mean, you are in it, you're doing all the things. You're an accomplished author. You wrote the book own your career, own your life. And like I said, Rick woods was saying, this was her favorite career book of 2021. So let me ask you this. You are also a husband, a father, an a speaker. So what do you do to get yourself in the mindset of the writing process? What does that look like? How do you get yourself in the mindset to write? I love asking authors this question.
Andy (14:09):
Yeah. It, it is a, it is definitely a challenge. I think it, you know, more now than ever before, because we have so many things coming at us all the time, you know, emails, phone calls, texts, all, all these things that we can be doing, especially if you're a content creator, running a business like you and I there's, there's so many things to do, which is why it's so important to block time, to do the important things that you want to get done. I wrote this book essentially in the morning, usually between six and 7:00 AM from January 1st, 2020 to about may, sometime in may and 2020. And my goal was I'm big on goals and especially habits to achieve those goals. And so once I knew what the book was that I wanted to write which came to me kind of as a, a lightning bolt in the middle of a conversation, I was having with a friend of mine named Philip Ben Duson at a conference in London in November, 2019.
Andy (15:00):
It kind of all came to me and I was like, oh, this is the book that I wanna write. And I had given a couple talks the year before that I took the outlines from those and created the overall outline for this book and then knew what the vision was and this something I talk about in my own book, that it's important to have a vision for where you want to go for your career as well as for like things that you're working on. And I knew where I wanted to go. I knew why I wanted to do it. I had that purpose behind it because I'd seen so many people drifting in their careers. And I knew that I could create something to really help a lot of people stop drifting and control of their future to really own their careers and lives and get more intentional with what they're doing.
Andy (15:35):
And I wanted to create a blueprint for that. So I had the vision, I had the, the purpose, the why, and then I set a specific goal to write this book, you know, in a certain amount of time. And what I found out was that you know, I had never written a book. I never even written a blog. I didn't know if I could write wasn't that much of a writer, I would say in the past I was a podcaster. I like to talk to people. So I investigated the process, learned as much as I could. I found out the average business book is about 50,000 words, which seemed very intimidating to me. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a lot of words. But my mentor whose course I ended up taking on publishing books, name on recorder said to me, you know, you don't think of it as 50,000 words, you break it down and write 500 words a day said you probably write some emails that are 500 words.
Andy (16:20):
I was like, really? And so that's what I did. And then when I got really determined on that, that put me in the right frame of mind. And then I kind of set my schedule that every morning and I'm, and I'm a bit of a, an early riser I'm big on having a, an early morning routine. And so I decided that every morning I'm gonna write 500 words a day, every morning, seven days a week until I get this book done. And that's kind of what I did. So usually between six and 7:00 AM almost seven days a week, like I said, between January and may of 2020, it was like, okay, this is writing time. I've gotta make progress on this. And then if I make progress on it, I'll feel accomplished for the day. It doesn't matter what else happens. I'll feel good about where I'm going.
Andy (16:58):
And I know that this book is eventually going to get done. Now, once it was written there were still a lot of other things that needed to be done. I put some things off for a while. It took a little longer than I expected, but still got the book published in 2020. It came out in November of 2020, and I'm really proud of what I created and especially all of the great feedback and reactions I've received from people like Ric, very flattered that, that she would say that because she's deep into the career space and helping a lot of people that it is such a, an impactful and, and great book for people to help them in their careers.
Erin (17:29):
Oh yeah. And she, I mean, she literally said her favorite book of 2021 was your book. So here's a little fun game we play at improve it called word. Okay. Hmm. And so if I'm gonna ask you to do this, if you could sum up the book own your career, own your life in three words, what would it be?
Andy (17:51):
I guess I can't use own your career or own your life.
Erin (17:54):
<Laugh> yeah, I guess, I mean, the title really says it all, but if you, if you couldn't use the title, what would it be?
Andy (18:01):
Ooh, it's a tough one. I would say, live your best life. And just to expound on that, it it's living the life that you want living life for you. Because so many people are living life for other people or waiting because of fear or not taking action or not following their dreams or their goals or anything else. But this is about living life for you. So live life for you,
Erin (18:21):
Live life for you, that's for Andy, but I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna give it to you. Okay. Wait. Now, if you could sum it up in two words, what would it be
Andy (18:32):
Now? I got the three words, but I can't get the two words <laugh>. So I would go back and I would say the three words are live with intention and the two words are live intentionally. I know that's kind of a similar thing,
Erin (18:50):
But that works. That works. I love that. I love it. And I think that's like, exa, so this is a hard, this is a hard game. And we do this a lot with our communication workshops and anything we do where we want people to get, you know, boil it down. And I think that live intentionally live with intent is exactly what people did in 2020, in 2021. We've reevaluated. So what a timely time, what a timely time, Andy, write that down.
Andy (19:19):
What a timely time we live in a timely time
Erin (19:21):
We live in, but what a time to actually get this book into the world when people need it most so, so cool. And I wanna know to, I know you talk a lot about habits and you gave us the habit that you did to actually write the book, but what could you give our audience a sneak peek at one of your favorite habits in the book that helps people own their career and their life? What would you say is your favorite habit that you mention in the book?
Andy (19:48):
Yeah, there, there's a lot of habits in there and I have a lot of habits that I can point to as reasons or helpful things that have led to my own success, especially when it comes to health. I'm a big fan of the morning routine meditation, exercise, reading, journaling, all those sorts of things. But I would say that the habit I would point to in the book especially when it comes to career and professional success, that will, I think have the biggest payoff in terms of your own professional success, long term would be networking, making investing time and even money into building your network, building relationships on a regular basis. And that could mean different things to different people, but to, you know, a lot of people are very serious about networking. A lot of people avoid it like crazy. And then I would say most people are somewhere in the middle.
Andy (20:37):
Like if I meet some great people, that's great. If I don't, if I don't and don't make much time for it, but getting intentional, using that word again to set a goal and say, you know, know I'm gonna meet two new people a week or three, I'm gonna have three coffees a week or one a week, or whatever it is to say, I'm going to be establishing a habit that I'm gonna be networking and connecting with new people all the time or reinforcing relationships I have. I don't think there's anything that is more valuable in terms of leading to future career success than having that network and, and building those relationships.
Erin (21:09):
I love that. Annette is honestly, I had a career prior to improve, improve it in business development at a recruiting firm. And I had to network that job. I had never had a job where that was my job. Right. And that, I mean, talk about getting doors slammed in your face. I'm talking about really in the nose, Andy, like to door to nose. Yeah. And, but when I actually had those conversations and sat down and talked with, with a person, I built that relationship. I built that trust. I can't tell you you how many friends I have today that started off with a coffee or a connection in email, or I actually have one of my favorite clients that I ever, ever got the privilege of working with because I dropped off a cupcake. This was pre COVID. What, you know, you could drop off food and it wasn't weird. I dropped off a cupcake to her office to say, Hey, I would love to get to know you. This was in my recruiting days. And to this day, she's still one of improve its best clients. And she's an HR professional and just a fantastic human, but we're friends because of that cupcake. So I love this. Now, let me ask you this too. Why is networking so vital to your career? Why or to the longevity of your career, why would you say that it's so important?
Andy (22:38):
Well, I think when people, especially for people that have gotten opportunities through relationships that they get it right. You can think back to this, if you haven't, you know, consider this, if you're going, you decide that you wanna to change careers or go after a different job or go for a specific job, would you rather apply online and be one of 500 or a thousand resumes that are going on a, you know, top of a proverbial pile of resumes applying for a job, or would you rather have somebody call the hiring manager and say, Hey, my friend, Aaron, I think would be perfect for this job. I think you should interview her and have a warm, personal reference into that job. I, I think that the answer is pretty easy, right? And you've worked in recruiting. You've probably seen this, you know, how big of a deal that can be and pun, you know, when I think back to pun intended pun intended, big deal, right?
Andy (23:25):
Most of the jobs I've gotten came from introductions, personal relationships. I, I think back to in 2010, I had a friend introduced me to a consulting company and refer me in to get me an interview for what turned out to be kind of my dream job. It was something I didn't know, existed, leveraged a lot of my strengths and skills to get up in front of a room, to work on different things, to run workshops. And I did well in the interviews, but it was a very warm process that went quick, fairly quickly, not quick enough for me at the time, but right, but fairly quickly and to what turned out to be a fairly easy offer because he had referred me in out for me versus like I said, being one of, you know, several hundred people or thousand, even applying for something online, maybe no one ever even sees my resume or gets to see what I'm capable of doing.
Andy (24:17):
It's just a huge, huge difference when you have that. And that can come, whether you're being really intentional about reaching out to specific people that are doing the, that you're trying to get, or, you know, just making friends with people and you never know where they may end up one day, like you said, you dropped off some cupcakes later, that person became a client. You and I are having a conversation. Right. And, and, and helping and supporting each other. And who knows maybe one day, you know, five or 10 years from now, you might have some huge company. And I decide I wanna work there and I can be like, Hey, remember when we did those interviews? And you're like, oh yeah, come on. Hopefully <laugh> so
Erin (24:49):
That's gonna happen, Andy? Yes. It must manifest it. Let's put it out in the universe. All right.
Andy (24:53):
Let's, let's do that. Well, I I've committed to hopefully never taking another job again. I, I, I prefer and, and, and like working for myself, but hopefully we'll find ways to collaborate and work together down the line. And it will happen because we've developed this really, and we know that we like working with each other. And would you rather hire somebody as an employee or contractor that you have experience with and you know, that they're a good person and you like working with them, or would you rather go through the process of going through 500 or a thousand resumes? I mean, it's, it's a pretty easy choice,
Erin (25:24):
So easy, so easy. And I'm gonna tell you too, all of the jobs that I had prior to improve it were from networking, from knowing somebody for having a relationship. So, oh, okay. So let's say we have a early a person early in their career, or even somebody in their career who hasn't really had to network. So for example, my husband is in learning and development and he networks all across his organization, but externally it's much harder for him to network because he's so consumed right in his day to day. So what is one piece of advice you would tell a leader early in their career and then a leader who's more senior in their career to increase their networking. What's something they could do today?
Andy (26:08):
Well, first of all, I think it's great. You said your husband networks with people across this organization. I think most people stick with their small group of 10 people or whatever it is, their silo, and rarely reach out beyond that. So I'm a big advocate of reaching out to people in different parts of the company that you work for, get to know people in finance and legal in it, right, because you never know when you're gonna have an issue. And you're like, oh, I really need someone to review this contract or whatever. Actually, I had a contract sent to me for, for an investment opportunity I'm considering and just yesterday I sent it to an attorney friend of mine and he gladly reviewed it for me. It did me a favor and that's because we're friends, right? So it's, it pays off to have people in your network that do different things, not just the people that are doing the thing you're doing.
Andy (26:52):
I would say if you're early in your career, obviously you haven't as much time as maybe others to build that network. So don't have high expectations or get yourself down that like, you need to have this big network, you just build it one person, one step at a time, reaching out to people, taking advantage of opportunities. Obviously, as I mentioned, reaching out to people within your company but also either attending conferences or networking events or just getting on LinkedIn. And I'm a big fan of this going on LinkedIn and finding people, either doing the same job as you, you at different companies or people who are doing the job that you want to do. If you know that, Hey, I'd love to move up and be a director or a VP of finance one day, finding people that are doing that, reaching out to them, sending 'em a connection request.
Andy (27:34):
And just saying like, Hey, I, you know, John, I see you're a VP of finance. I just started my career in finance. I'd love to learn from you you know, about what you're doing. What's worked in your career. What hasn't maybe we can do an informational interview and you're not asking for anything other than maybe some advice, a little bit of their time. I find people are very amenable to that. And that allows you to start building your network with people who are maybe a little bit more senior than you, but also for those early in your career, do not be one of those people. That's only reaching out to people more senior than you, right? Don't discount people at your level the administrative staff, right? The janitor, anybody, because you never know where people are gonna end up. And then I'd say for people who are more senior, I think the biggest challenge I see in that space is that as a result of what we'll call pride and ego people think, well, I should have have certain things figured out.
Andy (28:26):
I should already know all these things I I've been around for a while. It's harder to make new friends to swallow that pride and still go out and meet new people and lead with curiosity, always lead with curiosity and ask people questions, and try to learn from others before you start you know, putting in injecting things that you've already done. And assuming that things need to be done the way that you've done things, because there may be a lot of great new ways out there to do things. So I would say continue to, to talk to people and lead with curiosity and humility, because you never know what you might learn or who whom you might meet.
Erin (29:01):
I love that. Leave lead with curiosity and humility. I love that. And okay, let me ask you this. So I wanna know too, we talk, we actually teach this power skill networking and we call 'em power skills. The, do you know this? I like it lot soft skills, you know, I like it. So we talk about the power of a personalized and engaging elevator pitch. Right. Have you ever used an elevator pitch and, and what are your thoughts on elevator pitches?
Andy (29:36):
I guess I would say of a bit of a love, hate relationship. I, I don't think that I, sometimes I think it gets more focus than it may be needs. But at the same time, I completely understand the need to, when you're going out to networking events, conferences, contacting new people to find a way to, to peak their curiosity. Right. And, and get them interested. And so I've studied this. I don't think that I've necessarily done great job with it. But it is, you know, essentially right. An elevator pitch refers to you have a short amount of time to tell somebody what you do and the goal should be for them to say, tell me more. I wanna talk to you more. Right. Yeah. And so it's finding a compelling way to talk about the work that you do. And it requires a little bit of extra effort to think about why you do the work you do, and what are the end results versus, you know, you look at a lot of people's LinkedIn profiles, you ask them what they do, and they just tell you about their job title and their responsibilities when there is definitely a different way to frame it.
Andy (30:34):
And talk about how you're maybe helping people or the overall mission of the company or the work that you're doing. I think that when you start to think through that, it's a little bit uncomfortable at first, but when you start really using it, it can also be encouraging to you to think more about like the bigger picture of the work you're doing. And this reminds me you know, you and I have both been running workshops with companies for many years. I've been doing this for close to a decade. And I was working once with a, a big professional services firm. Co-Facilitating with a very senior leader there. And it was the beginning of the day, you know, one of those workshops, there's 25 people in the room let's go around and introduce ourselves before we get into the learning. And he did something that I thought was pretty profound.
Andy (31:18):
He said, well, I want you to introduce yourself, but instead of telling me your title and the group that you're in, want you to tell us about the mission and the people you help and why that's part of, you know, what you do as part of the bigger mission. And it completely changed the conversation. And I think people paid a lot more attention cause they were really interested to hear that, you know, instead of I'm and a senior auditing professional you know, and goes to like, I help companies you know, stay up to date on regulations so that they can achieve their missions without getting bogged down with compliance issues and things like that, whatever it may be. Right. and it makes things more interesting to people. So I'm always working on trying to improve that as well in the vein of improve it. Yeah.
Erin (32:00):
I love this, Andy. I love it so much. And this is actually something we teach on as well, which is remembering your, why, finding your why, and using that. Why to a, put you in a more positive mindset when you show up at work or you're about to prepare to do anything, whether it's presenting, whether it's having a tough conversation, whether it's engaging with somebody that you typically don't engage with, which is AKA networking. And I love this concept because when you can remember that, why that's when you actually show up in a different way. And when you look at when your perspective shifts, you shift your energy shifts and people, when you're networking can read that in that energy much differently. So I have a challenge, Andy, you told me to challenge you today. Oh,
Andy (32:52):
I did. Yeah. Now I'm scared. You did. Okay.
Erin (32:55):
Are you, are you okay? Can I go, can I, can I challenge to a fun game called new choice? Yeah. Bring it. And this is, this is one of my favorite games. It's actually a tried and true improv game that we use sometimes in our workshops, but it's just a fun way to think outside the box a little bit. So if you were to introduce yourself to me, could you give me your VA pitch? Okay. And then what's gonna happen. And if you wanna incorporate your why into this, the why you do what you do, who is Andy? Tell us about your company, your book, your podcast, all the things and infuse some of that. Why it parts in your speech? I'm gonna say new choice. Okay. And so it might be, I be like new book title, or I might say new podcast title, or I might say new word for blank, whatever it is. Yeah. You just have to give a new choice of that word and then keep going. Okay. And this, this will be like 30 seconds, which is the length of time of the typical elevator pitch. And we'll just see what happens. Are
Andy (33:58):
You ready? Okay, I'm ready. Let, let's do this.
Erin (34:01):
Okay, Andy. Hi, I'm Erin Dal. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Andy (34:05):
Hey Erin. So nice to meet you. My name is Andy and I help people own their careers. And I do that via speaking training, new choice books,
Erin (34:16):
New way, new way of doing it with
Andy (34:18):
Podcasts, writing sharing lots of content on social media and inspiring people in different ways because I want to help them live with intention. Take control of their future. My overall mission in life is to inspire people. New mission. My purpose in life is to fulfill my true potential and inspire thousands or millions of other people to do the same. And I'm doing that with all of this content that I'm creating through books, podcasts and I also run a membership community to help people
Erin (34:51):
New type of community.
Andy (34:53):
I run a group it's like a club, a cool place for people to go in talent development to really learn, connect, and grow with each other.
Erin (35:02):
Oh my gosh, you nailed it, Andy. It's hard cause I interrupt you, but you nailed it. That was fantastic. That was fun. I mean, it's like, you've done that before. That was not practiced in private. It fam that was not practic. And I, I definitely sprung that on. That was so good. So good. How
Andy (35:21):
Do you feel I've already nervous about giving an elevator pitch, but you know, it's, it's not, it's hard enough to give an elevator pitch, let alone when someone's interrupting you and telling you to change your words. But I like it because it gets you thinking differently. Well, how could you describe things differently? Maybe in a way that resonates with people. And it also reminds me that when you're out there trying to help people say you're creating content or anything else, everybody consumes and learns in different ways. Words resonate differently with different people. So I think it's worth investigating those things. Yeah.
Erin (35:50):
You've really nailed that. And I think too, a lot of times when we hear, like you said, this word elevator pitch, it gets like, it's like the words, role play. You get your eyes rolling in the back of your head and people like, oh gosh, an elevator pitch. Right.
Andy (36:03):
Well, I think, I, I think, you know, along with that is like, people are bristle at the, at the idea of sales, right? A lot of people don't like, yes, <inaudible> or selling to others. Then to me, elevator pitch implies that I'm tr now trying to sell myself you know, pitch you on why you'd want to talk to me. And it, it can be a little bit cringeworthy. That's why a lot of people don't like networking. They shy away from networking because they think that it means they've gotta go pitch theirselves or sell themselves to other people which is why I try to make people more, feel more comfortable and tell them that leading with curiosity is the best way to go. And just ask question and get to know the other person and they're gonna like you anyway. Now, if you want them to hire you or do business with you, you've gotta create a conversation where they learn about you as well. But I always try to lead with that curiosity and providing value to the other person before I'm going and quote unquote, pitching them on who I am and what I do.
Erin (36:55):
Yes. I absolutely love that. And you can tell Andy in the way that you show up, you show up super authentically, you're here to help people. You're, you're here to give content that will connect help. And you're also leading with curiosity in the way that you provide that content. Cuz you're asking your audience questions. You're asking people different things, you know, how to specialize and create content that will help them, especially when it comes to, which is, I think one of the biggest pieces of your career is networking, which is really just connecting it's building relationships or hardwired to connect as human beings. But it's right. Those words, the vernacular, it sometimes makes us feel differently about what we're doing when in actuality, we're just connecting. We are just connecting. So that's it. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Do you have a story, a highlight of one of the coolest ways that you've ever the coolest networking experiences you've ever had? Do you ha does anything come to mind when you think of one of the coolest networking experie you've ever had?
Andy (38:01):
I have been very fortunate that I've built relationships with a lot of people over the years, in many different circumstances. One of which, you know, one of the reasons is because you know, I went to school, I moved around some different places getting into consulting, a lot of me to work with a lot of different companies, a lot of different clients travel a lot, which allowed me to catch up with people. One of the interesting ways that I've built a big network that might not be expected since we're talking about careers and it seems like everything is about being professional, but I also talk, you know, about networking. Let's talk about leading with curiosity and giving value, but like where do you find people? You know, the easiest way to build relationships is when you have some type of common ground to start from, right.
Andy (38:45):
Which is why we made friends in school. It's why it's easier. And I think make friends at conferences, especially conferences that you go to sort of voluntarily, like it's fun thing, like a think of like a comic con or something versus like the, you know, manufacturing, widgets expo or something like that. <Laugh> because you have a, you have a common, you have a common interest right in the thing. And so one of the things I did after I started getting wheel into personal development a few years ago was I joined a membership community similar to one. I run now me for dads, for fathers called the dad edge and was only open to dads. And I was con and I connected with so many people via that Facebook group and the calls that we do on zoom. And I made a ton of really great friends who were all over the world.
Andy (39:30):
And because I also got to travel at least back of then for the, the, the job I was is doing business, I would run, I get to meet up with a lot of them in different cities. And many of the, I haven't, I'm not in that group anymore, but many of those people are still good friends of mine that I talk with on a regular basis. And we connected over one simple commonality. We're all fathers and we're into personal development. We're trying to be the best husband's fathers we can be. And we can, you know, connect, we can coach each other, hold each other accountable, help each other. And you know, I've done that with a lot of, I've joined other groups for entrepreneurs you know, lots of different spaces. And I find once you have that commonality, you can connect with people.
Andy (40:07):
Social media helps a lot with that follow people on their journey, see what they're doing. And I've made so many great friends by doing that. Another cool story that I'll share. And I think I mentioned this in my book my friend, Kevin M. Yates, who, if you're in learning and development, talent development, you need to follow him on LinkedIn. He reached out to me one day on LinkedIn a few years ago and we just kind of connected, got on the phone, hit it off. He was in Chicago. I live in Orlando and, but we hit it off and became good friends. And then when I was in Chicago for business, we had lunch at Facebook where he opened or he worked at the time, still works now meta. And I eventually, because I was so impressed with the work he was doing, I invited him my friend Ben Phillips, and I were organizing a conference.
Andy (40:55):
So I mentioned how the talent development, hot seat podcast in 2019, we organized a conference which ended up happening in January, 2020 called the talent development think tank. We had some great guest speaker, great speakers there, like Josh Beon, Liz Weisman, who wrote multipliers Michael Bunge, Stan who wrote the book the coaching habit and many, many other great speakers and facilitators. And many of them were sort of in our network already. But one, we had an extra spot open. The first person I called was Kevin, the man I mentioned to come speak and run a session at our conference. And he was starting to speak at conferences all over the world. And he did me a favor to come speak without a fee, cuz we didn't really have a budget at the time. And he was the first person I called to bring in and speak.
Andy (41:37):
And I mentioned that because at the same time I was getting tons and tons of cold email outreach from all these different companies and speakers who wanted to come speak at our conference. And I told all of them, no. And then I invited my friend Kevin to come speak at our conference because we had a relationship because we had a friendship. You know, he reached out to me initially on LinkedIn, like lots of people do that took the time to really cultivate a relationship, never asked for anything from me and we became good friends and he was the first person I called. And I think about that a lot because it's such a Testament to, Hey, build relationships first and then you never know what opportunities might come later. And I've just seen that play out time and time again in all kinds of different ways, not only in my own life, but for other people around me. And so that's another story that comes to mind for me. I'm just like building relationships in a cool way.
Erin (42:25):
Yeah. Oh my God. I love that. What, okay, here's the tweet. You ready build relationships first? You don't know what will come later. That is so spot on Andy, because if you think about it, a lot of times people think about, I just need to meet this person so I can talk to them to get this job, or I wanna meet this person so I can talk to them to get this sale or wanna meet this person because they can help me do X, Y, Z. Right. And it's really about that relationship first because that trust is there. You found a tiny little commonality that, you know, we are all different. We celebrate those differences, but then those tiny little things like dad's edge, so cool. Right? You're all mm-hmm, <affirmative> wanting to be the best dads you can be, which is so admirable. And then, you know, with Kevin, you're just creating this relationship. And then you created this also big, bigger relationship, which was, you were able to introduce him to your community and help him thrive, which he was already thriving. Right. He was already
Andy (43:22):
Doing well, but yeah. Spoke at the conference. I've had him on my podcast probably three times. He spoken in our community. Yeah. You know, because I wanna support him. He's now starting a new nonprofit in the Chicago area called meals in the meantime, to help feed homeless people, healthy meals and foods, by the way. So Shaila plug for the work that he is doing. I think they're gonna be official 5 0 3 CB in January. So go
Erin (43:43):
Look that up. Given him some snaps, go, Kevin, go, Kevin, go, okay. Well, this is so fantastic. And I know Andy, I, I threw some challenges at you today, but I'm gonna say you passed with flying colors. You were an improviser. Did you know that you're an improviser? Oh, thank you. You're so welcome. Add that to the re add it to the bio. You can now say that. And we are all improvising. We're doing it every day. And the, the insight that you helped us today with on networking is really impactful. I think there's so many key takeaways here for myself and I, I know for the improve, it I'm listening. So I always ask this question. We say it, improve it. That you're, it can, that it means so many things to so many people. So what is, Andy's it or the one thing that you feel like you're put on this earth to do? Just, you know, what's the meaning of your life, Andy? That's it? Yes.
Andy (44:36):
Yes. Well, my life's purpose is to love and support my family to constantly grow and improve and to add value to the world and make the world a better place. That is why I'm here. And that is my mission and my I purpose and what I'm working on every day. So family first, and then anything I can do to help and connect others and make the world a better place. I'm leaning into that as much as I can. And so I appreciate you having me on to be part of that purpose and mission.
Erin (45:05):
Ooh. And you used the word improve in there, which we're all about and date the world needs more. You okay. How can the improve at FM find you, tell them all the things
Andy (45:16):
Well, as you mentioned already, I'm everywhere. <Laugh>, they're everywhere. He's everywhere. I try to be. I strive to be. So a couple things. One, if you are looking for more, I have some free resources available, including a guide to the five steps to owning your career. A report of the top five, most common career mistakes that people make. And three questions to ask. Anytime you face a big challenge, we didn't go into mindset and all those things that I'm really passionate about. But you can grab any and all of those things for free by going to own your career, own your life.com/bonus that's own your, your own, your life.com/bonus. And then you can find me every day on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, you've you can look at me up on in your podcast, directory, talent development, hot seat, own your career podcast. My out of T journey just go search for Andy Stewart or go to Andy storage.com. And hopefully you can find me. And if you do, let me know that you heard me on Erin's podcast because this is a big deal and I'm really glad and on and humbled that I was here.
Erin (46:19):
Thank you. That, oh, that was perfect. That was perfect. Okay. Well, Andy, you are a light. You're a motivator and you really do help others. See they can own their career, that they can increase their engagement with other people. They connect to others that can network. And I really wanna thank you for sharing your wisdom today. It's been so fun getting to know you, thanks for improving it with us and D
Andy (46:43):
Well, thank you so much, Erin, for having me on. I appreciate it. I am all about improvement and growth. In fact I'm a big believer. Tony Robb says most fulfillment comes from and contribution. And I find that if I'm not growing, I might be doing the opposite. So I am glad that you were on a mission out there to help people improve and grow. I am doing the same thing and I'm honored to be part of it. So thank you so much for having me on,
Erin (47:06):
Oh my gosh. Pleasure is ours.
Erin (47:16):
Improve it, family. What a show? What a show. I literally can't handle the goods that came out of this show. Andy is so fantastic. He is a light and he really cares about adding value and helping people really own their careers. So here's what I want you to take away from today's show. Networking is vital for career success. All right, after today's show, I want you to think about one person in your life who you would like to get to know who you have not yet done. So who you've not sent a LinkedIn message to who you've not sent a quick email to, to get to know. And I want you to send them an email or a voice note on LinkedIn. I love a voice note because people can hear your tone and inflection. Think about how you can relate to this person. So what's a common thread that you see maybe from their LinkedIn profile.
Erin (48:17):
Maybe you have the same job. Maybe you root for the same sports team. Maybe you're a part of the same association and reach out to them, ask them for 20 minutes of their time on zoom. Zoom is so easy or, or any virtual platform that you may use, or if they live near you meet them for coffee. And I want you to do this as a next step from today's show. And think about when we talked about the elevator pitch with Andy, what is your, why, what is your mission? Why do you do what you do and not because of the role that you play within your organization? Why do you personally do what you do and include that in that outreach to the person that you're going to network with? This is a vital step in terms of getting to know someone, because the why is so important.
Erin (49:06):
They wanna know why you wanna meet with them. And they also wanna know I you're doing what you're doing so they can help you. So take that next step today, reach out to that one person you've been putting off and let us know how it goes. Let me know, send us an email at info at learned to improve it. You can connect with me on LinkedIn if we haven't done. So. And if today's show inspired, you please send it to a friend, let them know the power of networking. And that's also networking is you're adding value to somebody else's life by sending them a piece of content that added value to yours. So my improve at fam, I just wanna tell you, please keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that special. It that only you can bring. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you back here next week until then sat.
Erin (50:03):
Hey friends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you are along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to the show. So you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just a little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me at keeping it real deal on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I wanna leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special. It that only you can bring see you next time.